The People’s Republic of China makes no distinction between civilian and military scientific research and that has Australia, if not New Zealand, worried.

By Probe International

Summary

Earlier this year, the Chinese “research ship” Tan Suo Yi Hao collaborated with New Zealand scientists to deploy a miniature submarine 6 kilometers deep into the Puysegur Trench, a cleft in the seabed of the southern Tasman Sea created by the subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate beneath the Pacific Plate to the south of New Zealand. The event marked the first crewed expedition to collect samples from the seabed, which also resulted in the discovery of the southern hemisphere’s deepest cold seep ecosystem.

Strategic Analysis Australia drily notes there are “few more naive than New Zealand scientists…when it comes to defense and security” after “a delighted Kiwi” remarked of their Chinese colleagues: “I really hope they come back and explore the trenches again. There are always more questions to answer.”

Along with China and New Zealand, scientists from Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, India and Malaysia also participated in the historic March mission but not Australia. Observers there voiced concerns about the Chinese research vessel taking a longer route back home along Australia’s southern coastline. A sensitive issue in the light of live-fire drills conducted in February by China’s military in the Tasman Sea, just north of the Puysegur Trench, without prior warning from Beijing. The drills took Australia by surprise, which this report by South China Morning Post highlights as it dismisses Australia’s uneasiness over the Puysegur Trench expedition.

The latter should be a cause for celebration but Australia is right to be anxious about “Xi Jinping’s policy of ‘civil-military fusion’” which “explicitly ­directs all research into supporting China’s military forces.” This, Australian watchers say, includes gathering intelligence on the country’s submarine capabilities, training areas, and seabed conditions around military and civil ports. [Continue reading at the publisher’s website here].