Darwin (MI) : Australia scrambled an air force surveillance plane earlier this
month to monitor an unannounced Chinese military exercise that took the
emerging superpower's ships closer to Australian territory than ever
before.
In what observers say is a significant strategic
development, China carried out combat simulations at the beginning of
the month between Christmas Island and Indonesia in an apparent flexing
of its growing naval muscle.
China had not announced the exercise. When Australia became
aware that the three Chinese vessels were sailing across the waters to
the north, the Royal Australian Air Force sent an AP-3C Orion maritime
surveillance plane from RAAF Base Edinburgh, near Adelaide, to observe.
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The Chinese flotilla - two destroyers and a landing ship
able to carry hundreds of marines - came closer than the People's
Liberation Army Navy ships had ever come while carrying out such an
exercise. It was the first time China had carried out a military
simulation in Australia's maritime approaches.
The three warships came through the Sunda Strait between Java
and Sumatra, skirted along the southern side of Java - taking them
close to Christmas Island - before turning north through the Lombok
Strait next to Bali.
Analysts stressed China's move was legal - taking place in
international waters - and not inherently hostile. But it did constitute
a signal by Beijing that it meant to become a truly global naval power,
which fundamentally changed Australia's strategic position. Rory
Medcalf, director of the Lowy Institute's international security
program, said China was sending a message it considered the Indian
Ocean part of its maritime domain as well as the Pacific.
''It should focus Australian minds because for decades
Australian defence policy has been based on the view that Indonesia is
between us and the great powers of East Asia. That's no longer quite the
case,'' he said.
The signal was directed not at Australia but to the
Asia-Pacific region more broadly - including a message to the United
States and India that they could not blockade the vital sea lanes
through the Strait of Malacca in the event of a crisis of conflict with
China.
Hugh White, professor of strategic studies at the Australian
National University, said the exercise was ''a very vivid demonstration
of how far and fast those changes are happening''.
''It doesn't mean that this exercise is threatening to
Australia but it does show how much the region is changing and how
dangerous it is to assume - as successive Australian governments have
done - that China can rise economically … without it making a
fundamental strategic difference to the region.''
A spokesman for Defence Minister David Johnston said
Australia had not been informed in advance but there had been no
obligation for China to do so.
Sumber : SMH
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