Tensions Resurge in Chinese-Australian Relationship

Australia moves to fortify its comparatively small and outdated navy (two frigates pictured above) after China’s unannounced trip around its coastline. (Courtesy: Picryl)

In the wake of the unannounced circumnavigation of three Chinese navy ships around Australia from February 11 to March 7, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government must chart a narrow course between an increasingly daring Beijing and an unreliable Washington.

Australia was on high alert for 24 days while the Chinese ships moved in and out of Australia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the area of ocean extending 200 nautical miles off a country’s coast which a country has the right to exploit, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Although states have the right to freely navigate other states’ EEZs, China also conducted unannounced drills involving the firing of live shots in the Tasman Sea, forcing 49 civilian flights to divert. The message was clear: China is flexing its muscles and it wants Australia to know its naval disadvantage.

China has the world’s largest navy. By contrast, Australia’s navy is old and the smallest it has been since World War II. Together, two of the vessels China sent to circle Australia carried 144 vertical launch missile cells. Australia’s ten total warships combined have 200. “The Chinese are showing us up in our own backyard,” Marcus Hellyer, a former employee of the Australian Department of Defence told the New York Times.

China insists there was nothing extraordinary about the trip. “As a major power in this region, as a country that has so many things to look after, it is normal for China to send their vessels to different parts of the region to conduct various kinds of activities,” Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian stated. Ambassador Xiao added China did not “pose a threat to Australia” as both countries remain “strategic partners.”

Beijing’s latest spectacle of its might at sea comes a year after the Australian-Chinese relationship recovered from the trade war that ignited when China slapped tariffs on Australia in 2020 to punish Canberra’s call for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. Following his 2022 election, Prime Minister Albanese began a years-long process to negotiate with China to resolve the dispute. Relations stabilized in March 2024 when Beijing lifted the tax on Australian wine, one of the last remaining tariffs, and affected Australian industries began to recover.

Now, the Albanese government is moving to equip Australian soldiers with anti-ship missiles and radar technology to counter the China threat. Canberra plans to spend as much as AUD$74 billion (USD$47 billion) on the technology that could act as a deterrent to future Chinese attempts to assert its naval dominance along Australia’s coast. Having faced similar behavior from China for years, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have also made growing and updating their missile arsenals a priority.

Chinese ships are likely to become a regular sight off the coast of Australia. Although Chinese officials deny that such operations have aggressive intent, Canberra is taking them seriously. As tensions escalate, reconciliation with Beijing is beginning to look like a thing of the past.