{"id":11873,"date":"2023-11-20T13:46:22","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T13:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/20\/australian-prime-minister-accuses-chinese-navy-of-dangerous-conduct\/"},"modified":"2023-11-20T13:46:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T13:46:22","slug":"australian-prime-minister-accuses-chinese-navy-of-dangerous-conduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/20\/australian-prime-minister-accuses-chinese-navy-of-dangerous-conduct\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian prime minister accuses Chinese navy of \u2018dangerous\u2019 conduct"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s prime minister has accused the Chinese navy of \u201cdangerous, unsafe and unprofessional\u201d conduct after an incident in international waters near Japan,\u00a0marking a potential friction point <\/strong>with Beijing weeks after he visited the Chinese capital to stabilize relations. <\/p>\n

Australian divers aboard the long-range frigate HMAS Toowoomba were trying to clear fishing nets from its propellers on November 14 when a Chinese destroyer approached, Australia\u2019s Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a statement Saturday. <\/p>\n

Despite being warned that a diving operation was underway, the Chinese destroyer operated its sonar in a manner that \u201cposed a risk to the safety of the Australian divers who were forced to exit the water,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

Medical assessments found the divers had sustained minor injuries, the statement added. <\/p>\n

Albanese refused to confirm whether he raised the incident with Chinese leader Xi Jinping when they met at the APEC summit in San Fransisco last Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can assure you that we raised these issues in the appropriate way and very clearly, unequivocally. And China, there\u2019s no misunderstanding as to Australia\u2019s view on this,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Asked about the incident at a regular news briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for China\u2019s Foreign Ministry said the Chinese military had \u201calways been highly disciplined\u201d and had \u201calways operated professionally on the basis of international law and international practices.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope relevant parties can stop causing troubles at China\u2019s doorstep and work with China to jointly safeguard the momentum of improving China-Australia relations,\u201d spokesperson Mao Ning said. <\/p>\n

The incident took place a week after Albanese paid a landmark visit to Beijing \u2013 the first trip by an Australian leader in seven years \u2013 to stabilize rocky bilateral ties after years of economic tension. <\/p>\n

In the Sky News interview, Albanese sidestepped a question on whether the incident will make bilateral relations \u201clook shaky\u201d now. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what I said when I was in China is that we will cooperate where we can but disagree where we must. And this is one of those times where we disagree with the action of China,\u201d Albanese said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made it clear that we disagree with what occurred, that we have the strongest possible objection, and that this sort of event should not occur.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Unsafe and unprofessional\u2019 interaction<\/h2>\n

In his statement Saturday, Marles said the Australian government had expressed \u201cserious concerns\u201d to the Chinese government over what it called an \u201cunsafe and unprofessional\u201d interaction with a People\u2019s Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy) destroyer. <\/p>\n

Medical assessments found the divers had sustained minor injuries, \u201clikely due to being subjected to the sonar pulses from the Chinese destroyer,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

Military ships use sonar to detect and locate objects in the water. Divers exposed to high levels of underwater sound can suffer from \u201cdizziness, hearing damage or other injuries to other sensitive organs,\u201d depending on the frequency and intensity of the sound, according to the London-based Diving Medical Advisory Committee. <\/p>\n

The HMAS Toowoomba had been in Japan\u2019s exclusive economic zone conducting operations in support of United Nations sanctions enforcement and was enroute to commence a scheduled port visit to Japan, according to Marles\u2019 statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia expects all countries, including China, to operate their militaries in a professional and safe manner,\u201d Marles said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDefense has for decades undertaken maritime surveillance activities in the region and does so in accordance with international law, exercising the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace.\u201d <\/p>\n

China\u2019s navy and air forces have been accused of unsafe practices by US and Canadian militaries in multiple close encounters in the East and South China seas in recent months. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Canadian military said a Chinese warplane fired flares in front of its helicopter over international waters of the South China Sea on October 29, an operation it said was reckless and could have resulted in the downing of the aircraft. <\/p>\n

In response, China blamed Canada for carrying out \u201cmalicious and provocative\u201d actions in the South China Sea. <\/p>\n

Ray Powell, director of SeaLight at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, said it will likely never be known if the order to use the sonar came from commanders in Beijing or at a lower level, maybe the Chinese destroyer captain himself. <\/p>\n

\u201cEither is disturbing, as the former would indicate mendacity at very senior levels, while the latter would demonstrate a mendacious military culture,\u201d said Powell, a former US Air Force officer. <\/p>\n

\u201cWere the roles reversed, it seems clear to me that an Australian naval commander who did the same thing would be relieved of command, or worse. Yet nobody believes such action is even being considered by Beijing,\u201d Powell said. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s prime minister has accused the Chinese navy of \u201cdangerous, unsafe and unprofessional\u201d conduct after an incident in international waters near Japan,\u00a0marking a potential friction point with Beijing weeks after he visited the Chinese capital to stabilize relations. Australian divers aboard the long-range frigate HMAS Toowoomba were trying to clear fishing nets from its propellers <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}