SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Beijing accuses Australia of 'hyping' China naval live fire drills
Beijing, Feb 23 (AFP) Feb 23, 2025
Beijing on Sunday said Canberra had "deliberately hyped" recent Chinese naval exercises near the Australian coast and confirmed its forces had used live fire in an incident that rattled Australian policymakers.

Authorities in Australia and close ally New Zealand have been monitoring three Chinese navy vessels spotted in recent days in international waters of the nearby Tasman Sea.

Canberra said Saturday it had not yet received a satisfactory explanation from Beijing for Friday's drill, which saw the Chinese ships broadcast a live-fire warning that caused commercial planes to change course.

China's defence ministry hit back on Sunday, saying the "relevant remarks of the Australian side are completely inconsistent with facts", while also confirming the use of live ammunition.

"During the period, China organised live-fire training of naval guns toward the sea on the basis of repeatedly issuing prior safety notices," Wu Qian, a spokesman for the defence ministry, said in a statement.

Wu added that China's actions were "in full compliance with international law and international practices, with no impact on aviation flight safety".

"Australia, while well aware of this, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up," said Wu, adding that Beijing was "astonished and strongly dissatisfied".

The altercation threatens to complicate the relationship between Beijing and Canberra, which has gradually warmed under Australia's Labor government.

Ties were derailed nearly a decade ago due to concerns in Australia about Chinese influence in local politics, followed by a 2018 ban on tech giant Huawei from Australia's 5G network.

Earlier this month, Canberra rebuked Beijing for "unsafe" military conduct, accusing a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares near an Australian air force plane patrolling the South China Sea.

China said at the time that the Australian plane had "deliberately intruded into the airspace around China's Xisha Islands", using Beijing's name for the Paracel Islands, adding that its "measures to expel the aircraft were legitimate, legal, professional and restrained".


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
China Focus: Chinese scientist details first planned Mars sample-return mission Tianwen 3
NASA says it will lose about 20 percent of its workforce
Building blocks of life found in distant star system suggest origins in interstellar space

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Trump administration expected to say greenhouse gases aren't harmful
MicroCarb satellite launches to map global carbon dioxide emissions from space
Rollable solar array by GalaxySpace redefines satellite compactness and power efficiency

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Airbus CO3D satellites begin mission to generate high precision global 3D map
BlackSky to supply satellite imagery and analytics for Latin American security operations
GovSat selects Thales Alenia Space to build secure satellite for military communications

24/7 News Coverage
First wildfire images reveal FireSat's unmatched detection capabilities
MetOp Second Generation satellite fully fuelled ahead of August launch
MicroCarb satellite launch marks new era in urban carbon tracking



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.