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Australia emphasizes the importance of good relations with China, its largest trading partner. Today (June 29), with the furious production of submarines and other warships in China – and its militarization of the South China Sea – Australia has chosen the British giant BAE Systems' defense to provide nine new frigates, in a $ 26 billion deal. The "Hunter" class ships will provide the Royal Australian Navy with "one of the most advanced anti-submarine warships in the world," said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. most modern design yet (paywall) for anti-submarine warfare. The British Royal Navy has also chosen vessels for its own anti-submarine fleet
Type 26 ships still need to be built. Under the agreement, Australia will be produced locally at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia to help strengthen the nation's manufacturing sector. The public company ASC Shipbuilding will become a subsidiary of BAE for the duration of the project. The vessels will enter service in the late 2020s.
The BAE agreement caps a month of increasing tensions between Australia and China. Earlier this week, Turnbull announced his government is investing $ 6 billion to acquire unmanned US spy drones. The six MQ-4C remotely manned Tritons will be able to fly higher and further than the inhabited planes of the nation. They will be used for monitoring in the South China Sea and in other regions.
Meanwhile, the Australian Senate yesterday passed laws that constitute the largest revision of Australia's security and foreign interference laws for decades. The new rules, coming amidst growing concerns of China's influence on Australia's political process, require lobbyists that foreign governments identify on a public registry. Turnbull cited "troubling reports about Chinese influence" last December.
Australia is also seeking to counter China's growing influence in the South Pacific. Security experts warn that a mega-funded China-funded dock in Vanuatu – large enough for warships – could leave the east coast of Australia vulnerable to attack. This is not the kind of thing that Australians have a habit of worrying about.
Beijing is known for using the "debt trap diplomacy" to help small countries build (often dubious) infrastructure projects. However, the projects end up clutching these countries with so much debt that, unable to pay, they may have to return strategic assets to China in return. An example is the strategic port on the Indian Ocean that Sri Lanka leased to China for a century last December.
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