Commander of the US Pacific Fleet Samuel Paparo says Australian forces are among those who have been challenged in an “unsafe” manner by Chinese forces.
China’s military had become increasingly provocative, staging “aggressive and coercive” challenges during the past two years to hundreds of US and Western aircraft and warships, including Australian forces, navigating the Indo-Pacific, America’s top naval commander for the region warned.
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrapped up a successful visit to China this week as part of stabilising relations, Admiral Paparo said he believed Chinese officers had been following orders to be more “aggressive” when it came to encounters with Western militaries.
While Beijing regularly denounces US and allied activity in the contested waters of the South China Sea or Taiwan Strait as “provocative”, Admiral Paparo contrasted the risky interceptions to the response when Chinese ships entered US territorial waters.“Recently, the PRC sailed a task group through the Aleutians and while there was a US unit nearby, the US unit conducted itself with impeccable professionalism and seamanship,” he said.
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