Chinese ambassador says live fire exercise off Australian coast was ‘gesture of friendliness’

Beijing’s man in Canberra ambassador Xiao Qian says the recent visit by Chinese warships wasn’t an act of aggression, but rather a “gesture of friendliness”.

Chinese warships stalked Australia’s coast for about three weeks, ending last week when they skirted Perth from a distance of about 314km before moving north towards Indonesia on Friday.

But Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian insisted the unannounced live fire drills were nothing to worry about.

“It is a gesture of friendliness that we are doing something here and please don’t worry about this,” Mr Xiao told 7 News.

Despite the precarious optics of China flexing its military muscle so close to Australian waters, the Chinese diplomat said the live-firing exercise on February 21 and 22 was conducted within international law.

Mr Xiao also pushed back at claims it put commercial aircraft at risk, insisting the exercise on the Tasman Sea was confined to machine gun fire towards a floating target.

“It has nothing to do with air. It does not affect air traffic,” he said.

“The Chinese side did make advance notice.”

The ambassador did claim, however, that freedom of navigation exercises involving the Australian navy and air force in the South China Sea do breach international law, warning “it might pose risk to an unexpected or unpredicted . . . dangerous skirmishes between the two sides”.

As the United States slaps tariffs on countries including China and Australia, Mr Xiao warned President Donald Trump’s 20 per cent tariff on China will not help the American economy or its people.

It’s prompted China to enforce their own tariffs on selected US goods in response.

“Time will tell that he (Mr Trump) needs to come back to a more rational and realistic approach,” he said.

And while he said “no country” wins in a trade war between the US and China, it didn’t stop the ambassador from suggesting Australia could capitalise by replacing American investment in new Chinese industries.

“Energy transition, green economy, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, quantum computing,” he said.

Mr Xiao was a conspicuous presence at ASIO boss Mike Burgess’s recent intelligence update hearing warning about foreign interference.

He insisted on Thursday that China will stay out of Australia’s coming election — no cyber attacks, no disruption — offering to work with whoever wins.

“To be honest, we have no preference (on who wins),” he said.