An Australian pilot was forced to take evasive action after a Chinese military jet detonated flares close to a Navy helicopter that was operating in international waters near South Korea.
The Defence Department has described the actions of the J-10 Chinese Air Force plane as “unsafe and unprofessional” following the incident which took place in the Yellow Sea over the weekend.
On Saturday a MH-60R Seahawk which had launched from HMAS Hobart was intercepted by the People’s Liberation Army-Air Force (PLA-AF) as it was taking part in a UN mission to enforce sanctions against North Korea.
The Australian government needs to retaliate in a serious way.
They just had talks between generals about this sort of dangerous behaviour and the Chinese immediately do this.
This is a message from China that they don’t respect Australia. Fine.
Australia should cut coal and iron exports to the bastards right before their next winter hits.
Can you define “retaliate in a serious way” ?
This media release is precisely the correct measured response to this kind of childish behaviour from China.
Cutting coal and iron exports would harm australua more than China. They put a tax on our wine and barley and that did some damage.
This type of flex from China is already commonplace in SEA, and thankfully we have cool heads in charge who will hold the right positions and respond in a measured way.
I gave an exact example of serious retaliation.
Australia can find other markets for its exports as we did previously.
China needs a reality check. They need Australia and they need to respect the safety of Australian citizens.
Ok, well… I’m glad you’re not in charge of anything I guess.
You’re glad someone who cares about the safety of Australian citizens isn’t in power?
Way to out yourself I guess.
China is our largest trading partner. Last year we exported $220b of stuff to China. This year it will be closer to $250b.
Second place is Japan, at a paltry $80b this year. That’s a third.
So your greedy and spineless solution is to allow these bullying tactics to continue until Australians are killed, and then continue to allow trade afterwards.
It’s not greedy to avoid catastrophic economic collapse.
It’s not spineless to choose an appropriate response instead of having a hissy fit.
You don’t protect Australians by acting like a tough guy.
So full blown war over seeking alternative trading partners is a better outcome? Because that’s what will happen if Chinese aggression isn’t met with severe consequences.
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Lol. Australia is just as codependent on our iron and coal trade with China as china is. We’re not going to do anything to threaten that. Let’s be honest. Really though, should Australia be operating warships so close to China when they really don’t like it. I don’t imagine or expect the Australian navy/Air Force to be friendly to a Chinese warships if they were off the coast of Brisbane or Sydney.
Found the bot who can’t read. International waters near south Korea with an actual mission against north korea. That’s not “operating near China”. If that was the case, the world should be nothing but bloody war, just about every country has military at their border. That’s near another country.
And the biggest reason this is a double dick move by China, the Seahawk was on a UN mission. Guess who’s part of UN. That’s right. China.
A UN mission that China has actively voted for repeatedly, no less. Every UNSC resolution against North Korea going back to 2006 has been unanimous.