As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese heads north to China for a week-long visit, Australia's defence force says it is watching for Chinese spy vessels heading south.
Defence has confirmed it expects Chinese surveillance vessels to monitor the biannual Talisman Sabre war games taking place off the Queensland and Northern Territory coastlines in coming weeks.
The Chinese military has sent surveillance ships to the past four Talisman Sabre exercises, and a Defence spokesperson said it is likely to happen again.
"It would not be unusual or unexpected for China to monitor Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, as it has during previous iterations of this exercise," they said.
"Defence monitors all traffic in our maritime approaches."
The Talisman Sabre exercises, which officially begin tomorrow, will involve more than 30 thousand defence personnel from 19 different countries.
It is the largest bilateral exercise between the Australian and United States militaries.
During the 2023 war games a high-tech Chinese spy ship was positioned off the Queensland coast, possibly as far south as Shoalwater Bay, trying to collect sensitive information on the exercises.
In 2021 two Chinese surveillance ship to monitor the joint exercises, and in 2019 a Chinese vessel stayed just outside Australian territorial waters throughout much of the event.
Albanese's trip to China
The anticipated arrival of a Chinese military vessel for this off the Australian coastline for this year's games comes at the same time as Anthony Albanese leaves for a six-day trip to China, with trade ties and security tensions both on the agenda.
The Prime Minister will fly into the commercial metropolis of Shanghai on Saturday before heading to Beijing and Chengdu next week.
The centrepiece of the visit will be annual talks with China's Premier Li Qiang in Beijing next week — but Anthony Albanese will use the Shanghai leg to talk up Australia's economic and sporting links with China.
The Prime Minister's expected to meet with former Socceroo Kevin Muscat, who's managing local soccer team Shanghai Port FC, along with a host of other Australians working for the club.
'We see China as important partner'
After that he'll visit the Shanghai headquarters of the massive online travel service company Trip.com, which is one of the main portals used by Chinese tourists coming to Australia.
While the Prime Minister will use the trip to bolster the booming trade links between Australia and China, the Shadow Foreign Minister Michaelia Cash said on Friday that Anthony Albanese should also raise the government's concerns about the live-fire exercises that the Chinese navy conducted earlier this year in the Tasman Sea.
"We see China as an important partner, and we seek respectful engagement with the Chinese Government — and its people. But that respect must go both ways,'' Senator Cash said.
"Earlier this year all Australians saw the reports of the Chinese Communist Party's Navy ships circumnavigating Australia."
"The way that circumnavigation occurred was not respectful. Mr Albanese should be raising the issue with his Chinese counterparts when he visits China."
