NZ Defence Minister: Chinese Warships Near Australia Prove ‘Distance Won’t Protect Us’

New Zealand's current Defence Minister Judith Collins speaks at her press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand on Aug. 31, 2021. Mark Mitchell - Pool/Getty Images

New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins says the flotilla of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) warships sailing down the coast of Australia is a “wake-up call” to her countrymen of the precarious nature of the Indo-Pacific.

The minister said CCP officials have also provided no information about the motivations of the warships.

As reported in The Epoch Times, the three vessels were spotted as close as 150 nautical miles (277 kilometres) from the Australian shore. The Tasman Sea, which separates Australia and New Zealand, is about 2,250 kilometres (1,400 miles) wide.

Speaking to RNZ, Collins acknowledged that Beijing was within its rights and claimed she had been aware of the fleet’s trajectory for “a few days.”

“The information that I can provide is that they’re still not that far off Sydney, about 130 to 150 kilometres off Sydney.

“At the moment, they’re just complying with international law; they’re entitled to do this under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” she said.

“But they are certainly significant vessels and the most significant and sophisticated we’ve seen this far south.”

The type 055 guide missile destroyer, Nanchang, of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy participates in a naval parade in the sea near Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province on April 23, 2019. Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images

Asked what could be done if the ships changed trajectory and headed towards Auckland, Collins said, “There is nothing we can do except monitor them.”

But she rejected the proposition that it was a “show of force” from the CCP.

“You'd have to ask the Chinese ambassador about that, but it seems to me it’s an unusual show,” she said. “We have not been informed by the Chinese government why this task group has been deployed into our region, and we have not been informed what its future plans are.”

The minister warned that the presence of the flotilla meant that countries in the Indo-Pacific region could no longer rely on distance to protect them.

“It’s a wake-up call,” she said. “New Zealanders have been told for years ... that we can just rest easy, do nothing on defence and expect that our distance from much of the world will protect us.

“This is the Chinese PLA [People’s Liberation Army] showing us that they can do this, and they’re showing the Australians as well,” Collins said. “We do not live in a benign strategic environment.”

Ongoing Intimidation from the CCP

The latest issue comes after an incident last week when a CCP fighter fired flares just 30 metres from an Australian patrol plane carrying out a routine inspection in international waters of the South China Sea.

And just three days ago on Feb. 18, a Chinese helicopter flew just three metres (10 feet) from a Philippine Coast Guard plane carrying journalists.

An aircraft identified by the Philippine Coast Guard as Chinese Navy helicopter (L) flies near the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) plane during an aerial reconnaissance flight at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Feb. 18, 2025. Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty Images

It is also happening while the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, visited Australia to meet with the country’s Chief of Joint Operations in Canberra.

Collins said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon would handle any communication with Beijing’s ambassador over the incident, as opposed to her or Foreign Minister Winston Peters—an indication of how seriously New Zealand is viewing the matter.

Last September, New Zealand sailed a military ship through the Taiwan Strait, which Beijing likely found provocative.

At the time, Collins said the HMNZS Aotearoa’s passage through the strait, along with the Australian vessel HMAS Sydney, was a “routine activity, consistent with international law, including the right of freedom of navigation as guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

One of the World’s Largest Warships

The small fleet includes a heavily armed Renhai class cruiser (named Zunyi), a Jiangkai-class frigate (Hengyang), and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu.

They have operated within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) over the past week, and Australian ships and aircraft are working with the NZ military to monitor them.

The Renhai class is one of the largest warships in the world, larger than comparable vessels built for the U.S. Navy. They are equipped with 112 missile tubes, twice the firepower of the Royal Australian Navy’s air warfare destroyer.

Emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Auckland—and honorary captain in the New Zealand Navy—Stephen Hoadley told TVNZ that the CCP were testing boundaries.

“Over-reacting is probably counter-productive, [in] that it gives the Chinese the satisfaction to know that they’re having a big impact on our psyche,” he said.

“[The Chinese ships] do not pose an immediate threat. They’re showing the flag, they’re showing that China has a blue-water capacity, that they can move around the world at will.”