China Denies Injuring Australian Navy Divers With Sonar

China dismissed complaints by Australia's government on Monday following an official report that said Royal Australian Navy divers were injured by a Chinese destroyer's sonar ping in a recent incident near Japan.

Australian frigate HMAS Toowoomba encountered the People's Liberation Army Navy destroyer, which was not named, in international waters in the East China Sea on November 14 while the Australian ship was enforcing U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

Richard Marles, the defense minister in Canberra, said at a press statement that the Toowoomba's divers had been deployed to clear fishing nets from the ship's propellers when the Chinese warship approached dangerously close and activated its powerful sonar, inflicting minor injuries on the crew.

The Australian frigate had already established communications with the Chinese ship and sent out warnings about the presence of divers, Marles said.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the PLA is disciplined and professional, and adheres to international law.

"We hope relevant parties will stop making trouble in front of China's doorstep and work with China to preserve the momentum of improving and growing China-Australia ties," she said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

The Global Times, the hawkish state-owned tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party, said on Sunday that Australia was seeking to "hype the 'China threat' theory."

The paper cited an unnamed analyst, who said the destroyer's crew had "very likely" issued verbal warnings about the Australian ship's presence. The Chinese vessel was forced to issue a "warning through sonar," the analyst said.

Mary Jardine-Clarke, an Australian defense analyst with the Greenwich House consultancy, criticized China's response as evasive and hostile, according to a post on LinkedIn. China's disregard for international norms should call into question its integrity in ongoing trade talks with Australia and regional cooperation more broadly, she said.

"What they are really saying here that Australia is making trouble on its doorstep, stopping short of saying that the East China Sea is also their territory," she said. "Australia can safely confirm from this appalling, calculated response that China is its enemy and has no intention of honoring anything it says."

China claims most of the South China Sea as its territory and has an ongoing dispute with Japan over the Tokyo-administered Senkaku Islands, although there is no evidence this is where the Toowoomba was operating at the time of the last week's incident.

Canberra's disclosure came shortly after Anthony Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to visit Beijing since 2016. His trip was considered a success; Albanese noted the removal of Chinese customs restrictions on Australian goods—an unofficial punishment after his predecessor, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, called for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

"Why do we support this outlaw enemy nation? This is not a game diplomacy can win. International trade and safety of life at sea must be protected in context of international law—without interference," Jardine-Clarke wrote on Tuesday.

This latest episode follows a previous incident in June last year, when a Chinese fighter jet allegedly made a dangerous maneuver near an Australian patrol craft over the South China Sea, releasing metal-containing chaff that was sucked into the other plane's engine.

The United States has reported over 180 unprofessional intercepts of American military planes by Chinese aircraft in the past two years. These incidents, along with others recorded by Canada and the Philippines, highlight growing concerns over military interactions with China's forces in the region and the potential for a deadly miscalculation.

U.S. Pacific Fleet commmander, Adm. Samuel Paparo, said recently that such events showed China was "operating under the logic of military power."

"They want to create tense, uncomfortable situations in the hope that U.S. and partner forces will vacate the space that every force has a right to be in," Paparo said.