Abbott warned the latest actions served as a warning that ‘we can’t take for granted that the Pacific is a calm lake.’
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) latest live-fire exercises near Australia as an “act of intimidation.”
Abbott said the communist regime is undoubtedly attempting to show the region who the “new big dog on the block is.”
He said the actions were designed to send a message suggesting that the United States could no longer go unchallenged in the region and that the peace in the Pacific could not be taken for granted.
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Three People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) vessels also came within 277 kilometres of Australian land on Feb. 19.
Abbott said the Albanese government can “talk about the normalisation of relations” but “the new normal is that China will attempt to bully us into a form of submission.”
However, the most disturbing aspect of the incident was that Australia appeared almost entirely unaware.
“And when we did become aware, it seemed that we were relying on New Zealand to do the naval shadowing,” Abbott said.
Abbott acknowledged that Albanese has a difficult job and a “lot on his plate,” but said his suggesting it was just a normal rite of passage rather than a display of naked strength was a “total misreading of the situation.”
Abbott Suggests Strengthening Australia’s Defence
Abbott said the incident showed the need to build up and strengthen Australia’s armed forces, particularly the navy and air force.
He believes Australia can only preserve peace through strength, not weakness.
“Because as my friend [shadow Defence Minister] Andrew Hastie often says, weakness is provocative, and what we saw from Australia last week was weakness,” he said.
The former prime minister noted that under U.S. President Donald Trump, America expects its friends to take more responsibility for their own defence.
“America under Trump, is much more transactional than before. It expects, understandably, its allies to do more for themselves. And I suppose in that sense, this Chinese visitation, this Chinese navy circumnavigation of Australia, is another sign, that we are going to have to do a lot more for ourselves when it comes to our military strength and our preparedness for tensions and dare I say it possible conflicts to come,” Abbott said.
The former Coalition leader said there was no doubt that Australia would have to spend a lot more on its military. Australia needs a long-range strike, and while eventually the AUKUS subs will provide that, “we need it now, not in 10 or 15 years’ time.”
How Did Albanese Respond?
Following China’s live fire exercise in the Tasman Sea, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared to downplay the incident, noting that the CCP complied with international law.
However, Albanese did acknowledge that Beijing’s notification of the live-fire exercises was not good enough.
“Defence confirmed that China did comply with international law, and that’s important,” Albanese said on Feb. 22.
“I think they could have given notice, but given Australia has a presence from time to time in the South China Sea, its location is hinted at there by the title of the sea, that we engage in activities that are lawful.
“Notification did occur of this event, what we have done is to make representation, saying that we think best practice would be to give more notice, and we’ve done that through diplomatic channels, as is appropriate.”
