Two Chinese warships arrived in Sydney yesterday ahead of the first joint military exercises between Australia and the Asian nation, with officials saying more operations were planned.
Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said next week's joint exercises involving the Australian, Chinese and New Zealand navies signaled closer military cooperation between Beijing and Canberra.
"At this stage I would expect that primarily we would be looking at naval exercises but we will also be having discussions between our air force and obviously our army," Nelson told reporters.
"Some of those discussions have already commenced," he said as he welcomed the guided-missile destroyer Haerbin and supply ship Hongzehu into Sydney Harbor.
While the US has expressed concerns about China's increasing military muscle, Nelson said the joint exercises showed Beijing recognized it needed to be open and transparent about its growing capability.
"I think if people are looking for evidence of increased efforts by Chinese military and political leadership for transparency, look no further than the visit by these two Chinese warships to Australia and the fact that we'll be doing joint exercises with our navy and New Zealand," he said.
The three navies will conduct joint search and rescue exercises next week in the Tasman Sea.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Chinese President Hu Jintao (
At the same time Australia -- which has strong trade ties with China -- sought to assure Beijing that new trilateral security talks it has entered into with Japan and the US are not aimed at isolating China.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese