Australia reaches out to China over fighter jet encounter

PERTH (Bloomberg): Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian government has reached out to Beijing to raise concerns over what he described as a "dangerous manoeuvre” between a Chinese fighter jet and an Australian surveillance plane over the South China Sea.

According to Australia’s Department of Defence, a RAAF P-8 aircraft was undertaking routine maritime surveillance activity in the region on May 26 when it was intercepted by a Chinese J-16 fighter aircraft. The Chinese jet flew "very close to the side” of the P-8 aircraft, before cutting in front of the Australian plane and releasing a "bundle of chaff which contains small pieces of aluminum,” Defence Minister Richard Marles (pic) said Sunday.

At a press conference here on Sunday, Albanese said Australia was concerned about the incident, which he claimed had represented a safety threat to the aircraft and its crew. The Australian leader said his government had reached out to China "through appropriate channels.”

"The Department of Defence has for many 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,” Albanese said.

In recent years, the Chinese government has expanded its control over the South China Sea, which it insists is part of its national territory despite several overlapping claims from neighbouring countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam. Since 2015, Beijing has built and militarised a number of artificial islands to solidify its claims in the region.

Last week, the Canadian military reported similar incidents to the Australian encounter, claiming in a statement that Chinese jets had repeatedly buzzed their surveillance planes flying through the region to enforce sanctions on North Korea.

The Canadian Armed Forces claimed the Chinese military jets did "not adhere to international air safety norms” and that the interactions were "unprofessional” and "put the safety of our RCAF personnel at risk.”

The incident is just the latest heated encounter between Chinese and Australian forces in recent months. In February, Australia called for a full investigation after it accused a Chinese naval vessel of targeting an Australian defense aircraft with a laser off the country’s northern coastline. Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison called it an "act of intimidation.”

Relations between the Chinese government and Australia have deteriorated in recent years, worsening significantly after Morrison called for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in April 2020.

Speaking during a visit to Papua New Guinea this week, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said a reset in the China-Australia relationship required "concrete actions” and there was "no autopilot.”