ADF Chopper Breaches China’s Exclusive Economic Zone

seahawk chopper

20-05-2024: On May 6, the Australian federal government accused a Chinese fighter jet of endangering a naval helicopter by firing flares into its path. Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles declared the incident an unsafe manoeuvre which posed a risk to the aircraft and personnel.[1] The Australian Prime Minister claimed the Australian Defence Force (ADF) was in “international waters” simply working to enforce United Nations (UN) sanctions on the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a.k.a “North Korea”). The ADF later stated that a Chengdu J-10 fighter jet from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released flares into the flight path of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) MH-60R helicopter, which was “unsafe and unprofessional” on behalf of the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force.[2] From the PRC, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated that what had occurred was that the Australian military aircraft flew near China’s airspace in a threatening way, and the Chinese military took necessary measures at the scene to warn and alert the Australian side in a manner consistent with the PRC’s laws and regulations and was professional and safe.[3]

Western provocations

Logic and reason verify the PRC’s version of events. The ADF Seahawk chopper flew from the Australian Navy ship HMAS Hobart which was operating in the Yellow Sea, which is located some 8500 kilometres from the nearest coastline of Australia. What is more, the incident itself took place just a few hundred kilometres from the PRC’s capital of Beijing.[4] In September last year, the ADF announced it was launching Operation Argos as part of an “international effort to eliminate nuclear weapons” in the DPRK.[5] Yet this is but a threadbare cover for outrageous military provocations against both the DPRK and its neighbour and ally, the PRC. It is impossible to attempt to police and surveil the DPRK without endangering the PRC given its immediate geographical proximity.

It is the case that the UN Security Council passed resolution 1718 in 2006 which basically blocks the direct or indirect supply or transfer of any arms and “dual use” (civilian and military) material to the northern half of the Korean Peninsula.[6] Yet the “prohibited items” in these sanctions include arms related materials, equipment and goods that could be used for manufacturing nuclear weapons. In practice, this means almost any trade with the DPRK “breaches” the UN sanctions. These sanctions are unjust and a crime as far as working people are concerned. Given the ongoing threat of invasion or obliteration from the US (United States of America) military, which permanently stations 30 000 troops in the southern half of Korea, the DPRK has the legitimate right to defend itself by any means necessary, up to and including the development of nuclear weapons. The graphic horror of the Korean war, where the US and its allies (including Australia) eliminated up to 3 million Koreans and around 1 million Chinese volunteers between 1950 and 1953, was squarely aimed at the PRC and its then newly declared victory of its epic socialist revolution in 1949. Despite this, the DPRK only began its nuclear weapons program in the early 2000s after decades of attempts to placate US imperialism by negotiating some kind of peace resulted instead in ongoing hostility from Washington.

Western hypocrisy

Even aside from this galling history, the US and Australian ruling classes demonstrate gaping hypocrisy with their coastal and military provocations of the PRC. Under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),[7] a coastal nation has the right to an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which encompasses waters up to 200 nautical miles (approx. 340 kilometres) from a country’s shores. It is the case that EEZs are “international waters”, but each coastal state has the right to regulate economic activity (such as fishing and oil exploration) within its EEZ. The PRC has ratified UNCLOS, established its own EEZ, and recognises those of other nations. The government of the US, however, has not signed or ratified UNCLOS (the only major power not to do so), but nonetheless states that it will act within its guidelines. The US government then goes on to say that it has the right to conduct military and intelligence collection activities within ANY country’s EEZ.[8]

The PRC disagrees, as do the governments of India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Furthermore, the PRC says that it recognises “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea, but says that EEZs should be respected. Indeed, it is difficult for the ADF to deny that it was at least spying on the PLA, which usually conducts its naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, which is an extension of the East China Sea that reaches between the Chinese mainland and the Korean peninsula. Some have suggested that the US and ADF were trying to catch a glimpse of the PLA Navy’s Fujian – it’s largest and newest aircraft carrier, which was conducting its first voyage.[9] While this may well have been a part of the US/AUS plans, the real goal is to pressure and provoke the PRC into a military confrontation, which could lead to a dangerous conflict, or even a world war. The dangers of incessantly poking and prodding the PRC, a nuclear armed superpower, are obvious, but the West continues to roll the dice.

Last November, the ADF claimed that the PLA Navy destroyer Ningbo used its sonar in the vicinity of RAN frigate HMAS Toowoomba while the ship had divers in the waters of the East China Sea. The PLA denied that it had done so and accused Australia of making “reckless accusations”.[10] In relation to the incident on May 6, PRC Defence Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang stated that Australia was disrupting PLA naval training in the Yellow Sea, and the PLA’s operations and warnings were legitimate and reasonable. Indeed, the international practice for aviation is to release flares when warning aircraft in foreign airspace. Xiaogang called on Australia to earnestly respect China’s sovereignty, to stop spreading false narratives, and to stop all dangerous and provocative actions.[11]

AUKUS

On top of blatant breaches of China’s EEZ, and open military provocations against Beijing in the South and East China Seas, the Australian, British and US ruling classes have formed AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States of America) – a flat out alliance for war on the PRC. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) government has been excoriated even by former ALP Prime Minister Paul Keating for splurging $368 billion to acquire nuclear powered submarines.[12] Nuclear powered submarines have a much longer range of operation and can only be planned for use against the giant PRC thousands of kilometres away from Australia, and an ocean away from the UK and the US. In addition, the US government is “quietly arming Taiwan to the teeth”, with millions of dollars of weapons pouring into the island[13]despite strong objections from Beijing. Taiwan being set up as a proxy is arguably worse than Ukraine being set up as a proxy to fight Russia, as Taiwan is actually a part of the PRC itself and has to be recognised as such by all nations that wish to trade with the vast PRC economy.

While the strategy of Anglo/US imperialism has been to “contain and roll back communism” in China since 1949, today Washington is desperate but powerless to contain the expansion of the PRC’s gargantuan manufacturing, technological, engineering and scientific industries. These sectors are doing so largely due to its socialistic and predominantly state-owned economy, including its banking and infrastructure and not just because of its size and population base. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently coined the new term of “overcapacity” to describe the PRC’s dominance in the production of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar panels.[14] Of course, what the US ruling class is concerned about is that US private industry cannot compete with the state backed manufacturing behemoths based in China, due to the US hollowing out its economy. In the latest wild attempt to contain the PRC, US President recently announced an astonishing 100% tariff on Chinese made electric vehicles (EVs), a 25% tariff on lithium-ion batteries, a 50% tariff on semiconductors and a 25% tariff on permanent magnets, natural graphite and other critical minerals from China.[15]

The billionaire owned economies in the West are in dire straits due to capitalism’s intractable and irresolvable contradictions, while the PRC demonstrates the clear advantages of public ownership of the major means of production, administered by a workers’ state. However, the PRC and the DPRK remain bureaucratically deformed workers’ states, which under conservative rule doggedly upholds the Stalinist axioms of “socialism in one country” and “peaceful coexistence” – neither of which are achievable at the best of times, let alone when imperialism is trapped in a death spiral of its own making. Imperialism is likely to resort to nuclear war rather than be permanently eclipsed. Working people must demand the abolition of AUKUS, the lifting of all tariffs and sanctions on China, the cessation of weapons transfers to Taiwan and an immediate end to all Western military provocations against Beijing. A permanent end to the threat of world war requires proletarian political revolutions in the East, combined with socialist revolutions in the West. With workers in power, the PRC’s industrial advances could be shared, and the industrial decline in the West could be reversed. Capitalism’s exit from the stage of history can then be of benefit to those who endlessly laboured to create its rise.

Workers League

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[1] www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/chinese-warplane-fired-flares-endangering-australian-navy-chopper-says-canberra/ar-BB1lXiB1 (15-05-2024)

[2] www.defence.gov.au/news-events/releases/2024-05-06/statement-unsafe-and-unprofessional-interaction-pla-air-force (15-05-2024)

[3] www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-says-its-military-took-necessary-steps-warn-australia-jet-incident-2024-05-07/ (15-05-2024)

[4] www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss2MnVPwXtw (15-05-2024)

[5] www.defence.gov.au/news-events/releases/2023-09-16/defence-joins-international-effort-enforce-sanctions-north-korea (15-05-2024)

[6] www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/1718 (15-05-2024)

[7] www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf (15-05-2024)

[8] www.crikey.com.au/2022/06/21/what-australia-is-doing-exclusive-economic-zone/ (15-05-2024)

[9] www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/technology/innovation/blame-game-continues-over-australian-navys-tense-moment-in-yellow-sea/news-story/ (15-05-2024)

[10] www.news.usni.org/2024/05/06/chinese-fighter-drops-flares-in-front-of-aussie-helo-in-unprofessional-action-say-officials (15-05-2024)

[11] www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3261776/china-slams-australian-military-disrupting-drill-after-yellow-sea-helicopter-confrontation (15-05-2024)