China conducts second live-fire drill near New Zealand
China's navy has reportedly conducted a second live-fire exercise in international waters, a day after a similar drill forced multiple airlines to change flight paths between Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand navy personnel advised live rounds were fired from a Chinese warship in international waters near the island nation on Saturday.
'Reporting from the New Zealand Defence Force that the Chinese naval Task Group has advised of a second window for live firing activity, on Saturday afternoon,' a spokesperson for the defence minister, Judith Collins, said in a statement seen by Reuters.
Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email
China's naval taskforce had given radio notice of its intent to conduct firing, and the NZ prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said the group had acted under international law.
Anthony Albanese earlier bristled at suggestions he should get Beijing on the phone after China's military carried out a live-fire exercise off the Australian coast on Friday.
The prime minister said senior Defence officials continued to monitor three Chinese warships after they were spotted moving south in international waters about 280km off Sydney on Thursday.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, met with her Chinese counterpart and demanded to know why the vessels only offered limited notice before the firing was carried out.
In a post on X late on Friday night Australian eastern time, Wong said she met with China's foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in South Africa that day.
'Calm and consistent dialogue with China enables us to progress our interests and advocate on issues that matter to Australians,' Wong said.
China's actions are believed to have complied with international law and the Australian Defence Force has advised there was no imminent threat to its assets or those of NZ.
Analysts believed the sailing was an attempt by Beijing to project power and send a message to Canberra about China's capability.
Albanese was asked on Saturday if he would call president Xi Jinping in light of the incident but instead defended China's right to carry out the exercise as it had not breached international law.
'It's important to not suggest that wasn't the case,' he said.
'What we have done is to make appropriate representation through diplomatic channels, including foreign minister to foreign minister.
'They could have given more notice but Australia has a presence from time to time in the South China Sea [and] this activity took place outside of our exclusive economic zone. Notification did occur.'
Australia has coordinated its response with NZ but has not spoken with Anzus ally the United States since the incident.
The opposition defence spokesperson, Andrew Hastie, suggested China's actions amounted to 'gunboat diplomacy'.
Sign up to Breaking News Australia
Get the most important news as it breaks
after newsletter promotion
'This is Chinese warships imposing themselves on our commercial airspace and that's why I come back to that question for the PM – where's his limit?' he told ABC Radio.
'Why is he being weak about this? Why isn't he picking up the phone and making representations on behalf of the Australian people and our national interests?'
The defence minister, Richard Marles, earlier said Australia had not received satisfactory answers when it queried the incident.
'They notified a live firing exercise but with very short notice, which meant that was very disconcerting for planes that were in the air,' he told Channel Seven.
Australian officials said it was customary to give 24 to 48 hours notice of live fire activity.
Qantas, Emirates and Air New Zealand modified flight paths between Australia and NZ after receiving reports of live firing in international waters.
A Defence spokesperson said China advised via a radio broadcast on a civilian channel that it would carry out its drill.
'[China] did not inform Defence of its intent to conduct a live fire activity and has not provided any further information,' a statement read.
The live-fire exercise follows a run-in with the Chinese military last week when a fighter jet fired flares in front of an RAAF surveillance aircraft during a patrol over the South China Sea.
The government lodged a complaint with Beijing over the near-miss.
With Stephanie Convery and Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Is Xi Jinping's time up?
Stories about Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongxun, are blowing up on social media. He died in 2002, so why the interest in him now? The weird fact is that Xi Zhongxun is being talked about in the West because he is not being talked about in China. Omission is the perverse way that one learns about what is really going on in the opaque world of Chinese Communist party (CCP) politics. China-watchers live on scraps. Xi Zhongxun was a big cheese in his own right. Born in the north-west's Shaanxi province, he was an early member of the youth league of the CCP. After meeting Mao Zedong at the conclusion of the Long March, which ended up in his home province, he quickly rose through the party ranks. After making a success of his governorship of Guangdong Province, where he set up one of the first of Deng Xiaoping's 'Special Economic Zones', Xi Zhongxun was promoted to the politburo in 1982. His official obituary describes him as 'an outstanding proletarian revolutionary', who was 'one of the main founders and leaders of the revolutionary base areas in the Shanxi-Gansu border region'. In short, Xi Zhongxun was an early hero and 'big beast' of the CCP. He passed his 'red genes' on to Xi Jinping, the primus inter pares of the 'princelings' who have come to dominate China's politics over the past decade. As such, it was no surprise that at the recent inauguration of the Revolutionary Memorial Hall in Shaanxi, it was planned to name it after Xi Zhongxun. But it didn't happen. At the last minute, in a low-key ceremony, his name was not only expunged from the title but omitted entirely from the memorial. A similarly strange story attaches to the 40-episode drama series Time in the Northwest, which followed Xi Zhongxun's life story. This unashamed glorification of President Xi's family, slated to be shown in primetime on CCTV, China's main state broadcaster, was dropped after two episodes. Is it a coincidence that the expunging of Xi Zhongxun has come to light while Xi himself seemingly disappeared from public view in the last two weeks of May? Chinese institutions are always alert to changes in the political wind – no more so than the state media. Recently China-watchers have detected subtle changes. Xi, usually on every front page of the People's Liberation Army Daily, has been much less prominent. Shen Ming-Shih, a director of the Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taiwan, has observed 'a noticeable decline in the official references to Xi'. In the past, Xi has been described as the 'eternal core of the party'. As recently as December, the People's Liberation Army Daily wrote that decisions should 'rely on a single voice of authority'. Now it praises the virtues of 'collective leadership'. In addition, Shen has pointed out that academics at Peking University and South China University of Technology have not been punished for writing essays critical of Xi's policies. Remarkably, Hu Jintao, Xi's predecessor and faction opponent, who, in front of the world's press, was humiliatingly manhandled out of the CCP's 20th National Congress in October 2022 by Xi's bodyguards, seems to be making a comeback. On 19 May, the People's Daily and Xinhua News both published articles using Hu catchphrases that reference 'scientific, democratic and law-based decision-making'. Wen Jiabao, the supposedly billionaire former Chinese premier, is another elder who is reportedly on manoeuvres. In May, the usual monthly politburo meeting did not take place. Furthermore, Xi has not been present at high-level meetings of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of which he is chairman. His place has been taken by General Zhang, who is not a Xi faction member. CMC chairmanship is central to the power of a CCP General Secretary. CCP elders are disillusioned by a leader who has assumed dictatorial powers but is deemed to have failed Uncertainty about the direction of the People's Liberation Army has contributed to the rumours of change in China's leadership. Hei Weidong, vice-chairman of the CMC and a member of Xi's Fujian faction, was suddenly arrested in April. Xi was governor of Fujian Province in the late 1990s. In November last year, another of Xi's Fujian clique, Admiral Miao Hua, who was head of the CMC's Political Work Department, was put under investigation for 'serious violations of discipline' – the usual newspeak for corruption. On 30 April, he was dismissed. Other Xi generals have reportedly been removed from their posts. In the realm of economic management there are also signs of discontent. It is widely recognised that Xi's repressive handling of the Covid pandemic was catastrophic. In the end it was public protest that forced him to end lockdown. By Chinese standards, post-Covid recovery has been anaemic. A property crash has destroyed consumer confidence and has also landed provincial governments with unsustainable levels of debt. Graduate unemployment has risen sharply. Many are fleeing to the West to find employment. A sense of malaise has cast a pall over China's younger generations. As a recent émigré Chinese dissident, who, like her friends, disparagingly refers to Xi as 'the village headman', confided to me: 'I realise that I was fortunate to live in a golden age of freedom and prosperity. Now it is over.' A sign of Xi's diminishing power is the increasing redundancy of the economic posts he held. The Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, which he chairs, has been meeting only sporadically. Foreign direct investment (FDI), which was a main contributor to the explosive economic growth of China after Deng's liberalisation of the economy in the 1980s, has collapsed. Beijing's State Administration of Foreign Exchange reported that FDI in 2023 was the lowest for 30 years. Inevitably a high proportion of blame for capital flight is being put on Xi's 'wolf-warrior' approach to diplomacy, itself an abandonment of Deng's 'softly, softly' approach to the expansion of China's global power. Who has been moving against Xi? Apart from elements within the army, who are thought to oppose military action against Taiwan, the 'princelings', many of whose offspring now reside overseas with the billions that their families have squirrelled away, are thought to be conspiring against the President. Most importantly, the party elders are disillusioned by a leader who has assumed dictatorial powers but is deemed to have failed. In China the elders act like an informal Areopagus, which in extremis checks the power of the executive. Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a Hong Kong-based scholar, has concluded that Xi's 'ability to shape policy in the financial, foreign affairs and other arenas has been truncated'. Lam speculates that 'Xi might be driven out of office this year'. Similarly, Cai Shenkun, a long-standing China-watcher, has reported that CCP leaders have already decided that Xi must step down: 'It's almost certain that an arrangement will be made to allow Xi and his inner circle to withdraw gracefully from the political stage. Once new leadership takes over, a new approach to governance will follow.' In a similar vein, Yao Cheng, a former officer in the CCP navy who deserted and fled to America in 2016, has speculated that Xi will retain 'only the ceremonial title of China's Chairman, before fully retiring at the 21st National Congress [in 2027]'. Xi's two-week disappearance in May seemed to support the theory that he has already been frozen out. So, did his reappearance on 4 June when he met Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko lay to rest the rumours of his political demise? Quite the opposite. The meeting, which was abnormally held in Xi's house, was strangely subfusc and devoid of normal protocols. Reporting was delayed and brief and did not feature any quotations from the President. The press photographs were lifted from Belarusian media as though Chinese reporters and photographers were not allowed to be present. If the rumours of Xi's defenestration are true, why the delay and subterfuge? The answer may lie in the fact that there is no obvious successor. No surprise here, seeing as, during his 12 years in power, Xi has put his clique in most senior positions. Zhang Lei, a well-connected, US-based YouTuber, has speculated that the CCP elders are casting around for a successor. Her sources suggest that Wang Yang, a liberal 'non-princeling' member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP from 2017 to 2022, has been sounded out. The demise of Xi has been predicted before and there can be no certainty that the recent waves of rumours are accurate. Even if they are true, it remains possible that Xi could stage a comeback and put his enemies to flight. However, given the dire problems facing China and the indifferent performance of its leader, it seems quite plausible that forces within the CCP have had enough of the dictatorial Xi, who, just two years ago, had presumptuously declared his intention to rule until 2032. If Xi falls, or indeed has already fallen, the consequences for Taiwan and US-China relations could be dramatic – and possibly beneficial to both.
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Portrait of the week: Spending review, LA protests and Greta Thunberg deported
Home Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, was the last minister to agree funding in the government spending review. Once the NHS and defence were settled there wasn't enough to go round. The police wanted more. Everyone over the state pension age in England and Wales with an income of £35,000 or less will receive the winter fuel payment after all, at a cost of £1.25 billion, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced. Capital spending included £39 billion on social housing over the next ten years. The government also committed £14.2 billion for the new Sizewell C nuclear power station, but did not say where the money was coming from. Rolls-Royce was selected as the preferred bidder to build the country's first small modular reactors. Unemployment rose to 4.6 per cent, its highest level since 2021, up from 4.5 per cent. Any child in England whose parents receive Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals from September 2026, adding 500,000 to the scheme. Teachers in England can use artificial intelligence to mark homework, under government guidance. The NHS said that a blood shortage required an increase of donors from 800,000 to a million. David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, announced sanctions against two Israeli ministers over comments which 'incited extremist violence', banning them from entering Britain. Zia Yusuf resigned as the chairman of Reform UK. He had criticised Sarah Pochin, the party's new MP, for urging Sir Keir Starmer to back a burqa ban, saying: 'I do think it's dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do.' Two days later he returned to the party in a role with the so-called Doge UK team, seeking savings in council spending. Labour won the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election for the Scottish parliament with 8,559 votes, ahead of the SNP's 7,957 and Reform's 7,088. There was rioting in Ballymena after an alleged sexual assault by two teenage Romanian-speaking boys. An audit commissioned by the secretary general of Unite found that there had been a 'pervasive fraud environment' in the union, which spent £112 million on building a hotel in Birmingham, losing £53.8 million. Last week Unite members voted to continue the dustmen's strike in Birmingham, which began on 11 March. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, agreed with US warnings against a new Chinese embassy at the former Royal Mint site on Tower Hill, fearing espionage. Marks and Spencer began taking online orders for home delivery again, six weeks after a cyber attack. Peter Easterby, the only racehorse trainer to have sent out more than 1,000 winners both over jumps and on the flat, died aged 95. Novelist Frederick Forsyth died aged 86. Abroad About 2,000 National Guard troops were deployed in Los Angeles by the federal government, against the wishes of Governor Gavin Newsom of California, to confront violent protests against the migrant deportation policy of President Donald Trump. A curfew was imposed and 700 Marines and 2,000 more National Guard were sent in. Mr Trump said he was 'disappointed' that Elon Musk had called his 'big, beautiful' budget bill a 'disgusting abomination'; Mr Musk complained of the President's 'ingratitude', declaring: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election.' He then tweeted: 'Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files.' He later deleted it. Mr Trump signed a proclamation banning entry for people from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen; a partial ban extended to Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Russia launched an attack with cruise missiles and hundreds of drones on Kyiv and other places in Ukraine; the next night Karkhiv was the target; on another night Kyiv and Odessa. Russia and Ukraine exchanged sick and badly wounded prisoners of war, those aged under 25, and bodies of 12,000 soldiers. Russia's mercenary group Wagner announced it was withdrawing from Mali after four years. A 75ft statue of Lenin in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, was quietly taken down. Eleven were killed in a shooting at a secondary school in the city of Graz in Austria, including the suspect. A yacht carrying Greta Thunberg and 11 others trying to bring aid to Gaza was towed to the port of Ashdod, after being seized by Israel, and she was put on a plane to Paris. CSH
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
The Sizewell delusion
The Chancellor's promise of £14 billion for the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk is hardly news. The project has been talked about for 15 years while the existing UK nuclear estate has gradually been shut down and the only other new station, Hinkley Point in Somerset, has stumbled to a decade-long delay and £28 billion of budget overruns. Quite some optimism – verging on Milibandian delusion – is required to embrace the idea that Sizewell will come quicker and cheaper because it will replicate Hinkley Point while avoiding its mistakes. And since Chinese money has been ruled out, it's still a mystery as to who else will pay for the project beside HMG and the French utility company EDF. Unarguably, we need a constant baseload of nuclear power to stop the lights going out in mid-century: commitment to Sizewell can't be all wrong, despite local objections. But what's intriguing about this week's news is that it coincides with the naming of Rolls-Royce as 'preferred bidder' to deliver the UK's first small modular reactors, in theory much easier to bring to fruition. If SMRs can really deliver nuclear power one town at a time by the mid-2030s, as planned, Hinkley Point and unfinished Sizewell will begin to look like dinosaurs. The simple truth is that both should have been done and dusted a generation ago. But nuclear decision-ducking has been a shame on successive governments for as long as most of us can remember. Defensive stocks My recent suggestion of a 'Rearmament Isa' that would incentivise savers to buy shares in UK manufacturers of military kit brought a positive response from one former defence minister but not from the current Chancellor who, let's face it, may not be among my most devoted readers. Nevertheless, I'm hoping the idea might feature in an Isa overhaul this autumn, because last week's £68 billion defence review wish-list of everything from ammo factories to autonomous weaponry was a reminder of how vital it is to sustain an innovative, well-capitalised, British-owned defence industry, rather than one that is picked off piece by piece by US and other foreign predators. And it's fair to say that the review's call for 'warfighting readiness' makes the sector a strong bet for investors anyway, with or without Isa tax benefits. Blue-chip defence stocks have already soared since the beginning of the year – BAE Systems up 68 per cent, Rolls-Royce 55 per cent – but may pause as the market discovers how much of the wish list the government actually commits to buying and to what extent UK firms are impeded (as President Emmanuel Macron of France has signalled) from supplying EU rearmament demand. In the meantime, smart stock-pickers will hunt for defence-related businesses that have yet to catch the upswing. Naturally on this theme I consult this column's veteran investor Robin Andrews, who suggests taking a look at 'engineering and electronics companies that are vital in the supply chain and whose customers are major defence companies and in some cases governments directly'. Here's his promising half-dozen: Melrose Industries in aerospace; Hunting in precision engineering; Filtronic, already a hot stock in telecom systems; and in various aspects of IT, Concurrent Technologies, EnSilica and the curiously named Raspberry Pi. As ever, we urge you to do your own research. City stampede Here we go again: three more tech companies abandoning London. Spectris, a listed precision instrument maker that descends from the Fairey seaplane company and might have featured in our roll call of defence-adjacent stocks above, is selling itself to the US private equity giant Advent for £3.7 billion. Alphawave, an Anglo-Canadian designer of 'high-speed connectivity solutions' that listed in London in 2021, has fallen to US microchip maker Qualcomm for £1.8 billion. Both deals are at huge premiums over the companies' last quoted share prices, reflecting the pattern of chronic undervaluation that has driven the decline of the London Stock Exchange and provoked a stampede of takeovers. Third to go this week is Wise, a money-transfer fintech founded in London by Estonian emigrés and now worth £11 billion, but moving its primary listing to New York. Time and again we're told City authorities, Treasury ministers and the Exchange itself are urgently pursuing reforms to make London's capital markets slicker and sexier; but so far, as the exodus accelerates, to no effect whatever. Top shopkeeper Last week, to some readers' irritation, I applauded a €100 million bonus for Michael O'Leary in his 31st year as the presiding genius of Ryanair. So if I'm in favour of high pay for high performance, logic might dictate that I should also favour the £7 million award to Stuart Machin for his third year's work as chief executive of Marks & Spencer. But I'm not so sure. The high street chain has certainly revived under Machin's leadership: profits are up, stores look fresher, the food offer outpaces rivals and the shares have risen 150 per cent since he took the helm in May 2022. And he's clearly not to blame for the cyber-attack that crippled M&S's website and cost the business £300 million. But nor is he a creator of the M&S brand: he's a hired hand (having previously worked for Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and in Australia) whose efforts have been closely mentored by his powerful chairman, Archie Norman. In that case, is it really fair to pay him 140 times the average store manager's salary? Then again, I hear you mutter, what's fairness got to do with it if £7 million is the going rate for global boardroom talent? Maybe, but it's a big number for running a shop and it puts Machin in a merciless media spotlight. Having said which, I'll pop out to buy my M&S picnic lunch.
