A CNN analysis asking, for one, whether “China’s warships…turning up in unexpected places and alarming US allies” is “the new normal” also seems to wonder whether U.S. demands that its allies contribute more to their own defense is the new normal (March 6, 2025).
It’s already long been normal for the Chinese Communist Party to go as far as it can go in threatening other countries without actually, yet, igniting World War Three. The party-state is always trying to establish a new normal, and we can expect this standard CCP policy of continuous encroachment to continue.
Unprecedented live-fire drills
As of a little more than a week ago, when CNN posted its article, Chinese warships had been “circumnavigating Australia’s coastline for more than three weeks, passing within 200 miles of Sydney, and staging unprecedented live-fire drills on its doorstep with New Zealand.
“The exercises, which came without formal notice, have caused deep consternation in both nations. Suddenly, the specter of China’s military power was no longer confined to the distant waters of the South China Sea or the Taiwan Strait—where China’s territorial aggression has escalated under leader Xi Jinping—but a stark reality unfolding much closer to home.”
“Chinese Warships Circle Australia and Leave it Feeling ‘Near-Naked,’ ” The New York Times added on March 12. “Finally, last weekend, the Chinese ships headed north toward Indonesia.”
Also: “For nearly a month, Australian forces were on alert as a flotilla of Chinese navy ships made an unannounced voyage around the continent. The ships sailed in and out of Australia’s exclusive economic zone. [The above Times map illustrating such trespasses is based on information from the Australian and New Zealand defense departments.] They fired live shots near commercial airspace, forcing dozens of civilian flights to reroute. They sailed past Perth in Western Australia, days after a visiting U.S. nuclear submarine docked at a nearby naval base.”
Abnormal normals
Yet “Australian officials repeatedly assured the public that the Chinese ships’ presence and actions were perfectly legitimate under international law.”
“Legitimate” by what standard? The actions certainly conform to whatever standards of legitimacy the Chinese Communist Party is willing to accept and abide by. Do Australia’s non-leaders share these standards?
The Times also says that the unwelcome if “legitimate” visit of China’s warships forced Australia “to take a hard look at its own aging fleet, its heavy military dependence on a faraway ally, the United States, and the increasing muscularity of its biggest trading partner, China.”
The ships “sailed in and out” of Australia’s EEZ. Would China’s threatening actions against Australia and New Zealand have conformed to international law if the warships had never crossed the border of Australia’s exclusive economic zone?
What about the “unprecedented live-fire drills”? Did the drills cross any sort of line?
The Chinese government threatened these countries and meant to threaten these countries. China wanted everyone to know that it was threatening these countries. And everybody does know that this was not a sightseeing trip. The governments of Australia and New Zealand had the right to force or try to force the ships to leave and had and has the right to shut down all trade and other “normal” interactions with China. Or at least impose billion-dollar tariffs on every thimble coming from China.
Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the countries of Europe, and others not on the side of the totalitarian states also have the right to harden and expand their ability to defend themselves. Moreover, doing so would be advisable.
