The PLAN ship passed within 17 miles of the Harold E Holt naval station base near the Western Australia town of Exmouth, which boasts a VLF transmission facility for communications with submarines.

这艘解放军舰艇经过西澳大利亚埃克斯茅斯镇附近的哈罗德·霍尔特海军基地17英里范围内，该基地拥有用于与潜艇通信的VLF传输设施。

 

By   COLIN CLARK

on May 13, 2022

科林·克拉克

2022年5月13日

 

People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) Intelligence Collection Vessel Haiwangxing operating off the north-west shelf of Australia. (Australian MoD)

中国人民解放军-海军（PLA-N）情报收集舰“海王星”号在澳大利亚西北大陆架海域作业。（澳大利亚国防部）

 

SYDNEY: Eight days before a heavily-contested federal election, Defense Minister Peter Dutton today revealed that a Chinese intelligence ship had entered Australia’s exclusive economic zone and was “hugging the coastline” near highly classified facilities, in what he called “an aggressive act.”

悉尼：在竞争激烈的联邦选举前八天，国防部长彼得·达顿今天透露，一艘中国情报船已进入澳大利亚专属经济区，并在高度机密设施附近“挨近海岸线”，他称之为“侵略行为”。

 

While Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal Party government has regularly flagged Chinese actions over the last 18 months, the timing of this release by Dutton raised questions about whether it was tied to the looming election, given that Australia has been monitoring the ship ‘for the past week or so.”

虽然在过去18个月里，澳大利亚总理斯科特·莫里森的自由党政府定期对中国的行动进行标记，但鉴于澳大利亚在过去一周左右一直在监控这艘船，达顿此次释放的时间引发了人们对其是否与即将到来的选举有关的疑问。”

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison maintained an even keel in his comments about the ship today.

总理斯科特莫里森今天对这艘船的评论保持冷静。

 

“They’ll keep a close eye on us and I can assure you, Australia, in our national interest, will always be keeping a close eye on them,” Morrison said. “I certainly don’t believe that when you take it together with the many coercive acts and the many statements that have been made attacking Australia’s nation interest, you could describe it as an act of bridge-building or friendship.”

莫里森说：“他们将密切关注我们，我可以向你们保证，为了我们的国家利益，澳大利亚将始终密切关注他们。”，“我当然不相信，当你把它与许多胁迫行为和攻击澳大利亚国家利益的许多声明结合起来时，你可以把它描述为一种架桥或友谊的行为。”

 

The PLAN ship passed within 17 nautical miles of the Harold E Holt naval station base near the Western Australia town of Exmouth, which boasts a VLF transmission facility for communications with submarines. Passage that far south on the western coast clearly attracted Australia’s interest.  “It is an aggressive act particularly because it has come so far south — for it to come south of Exmouth is without precedent,” Dutton said at his press event.

这艘解放军舰艇经过西澳大利亚埃克斯茅斯镇附近的哈罗德·霍尔特海军基地基地17海里范围内，该基地拥有用于与潜艇通信的VLF传输设施。位于西海岸最南端的航道显然引起了澳大利亚的兴趣。达顿在新闻发布会上说：“这是一种激进的行为，特别是因为它已经向南走了这么远——因为它来到埃克斯茅斯以南是史无前例的。”

 

Greg Sheridan, foreign editor for the The Australian newspaper and a respected defense observer, said in a column for the paper that his country isn’t really able to effectively counter the PLAN in such circumstances.

《澳大利亚人报》的外国编辑、受人尊敬的国防观察员格雷格·谢里丹（Greg Sheridan）在该报的专栏中表示，在这种情况下，澳大利亚并不能真正有效地对抗解放军。

 

Australia’s “new big patrol craft, the size of a small destroyer, carries no weapons of military grade,” he wrote. “Our eight small ANZAC frigates would similarly be wildly over matched against modern Chinese war ships. And we do not have enough aeroplanes to be sure even of full scale surveillance everywhere we like.”

他写道，澳大利亚的“新型大型巡逻艇只有小型驱逐舰大小，不携带军用武器”。 “我们的八艘小型澳新军团级（ANZAC）护卫舰同样会与现代中国军舰相抗衡。而且我们没有足够的飞机来确保在我们喜欢的任何地方进行全面监控。”

 

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews implied the ship’s journey may have been timed to coincide with the Australian elections: “We all understand that China is very strategic and is very careful about what it does, when it does it, and how it does it.”

内政部长凯伦·安德鲁斯暗示，这艘船的航行时间可能恰逢澳大利亚大选：“我们都知道中国非常具有战略性，并且对它做什么、什么时候做以及如何做都非常小心。”

 

Dutton did not answer a reporter’s question about whether he had flown to Western Australia to make the announcement, pointing to what he called “operational reasons.” He did deny the statement was made because of the elections.

达顿没有回答记者关于他是否已飞往西澳大利亚宣布这一消息的问题，而是指出了他所谓的“运营原因”。他确实否认该声明是因为选举而发表的。

 

The.Dongdiao class auxiliary intelligence ship, Haiwangxing (Neptune), is no stranger to Australia’s coasts, having monitored the Talisman Sabre exercises last year, which was discussed publicly by the Morrison government in July last year. She was heading north to Broome at press time.

这个“东调”级辅助情报船“海王星”（Neptune）对澳大利亚海岸并不陌生，去年监测了护身符佩剑演习，去年7月，莫里森政府公开讨论了这一问题。记者发稿时，正向北前往布鲁姆。

 

Unlike China, which regularly protests when American, Australian and other navies transit international waters it regards as within its control, the Ministry of Defense here noted that “Australia respects the right of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace, just as we expect others to respect our right to do the same.”

与中国不同，中国在美国、澳大利亚和其他国家海军过境其认为在其控制范围内的国际水域时经常提出抗议，澳大利亚国防部在这里指出，“澳大利亚尊重所有国家在国际水域和空域行使航行和飞越自由的权利，就像我们希望其他国家尊重我们这样做的权利一样。”

 

In an intriguing move, China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, did an interview with Sky News today in which he said he hoped to serve as a “bridge” between the PRC and Australia. (That is, of course, an ambassador’s job.) The other comment he made may have been more on target, and did reveal something of China’s views of elections: “Whichever political party, I have no choice. it’s up to the Australian people to make their own choices and decisions.”

中国驻澳大利亚大使肖千今天接受天空新闻采访时说，他希望成为中国和澳大利亚之间的“桥梁”，这是一个有趣的举动。（当然，这是大使的工作。）他所说的另一句话可能更加中肯，并确实透露了中国对选举的一些看法：“无论哪个政党，我都别无选择。这取决于澳大利亚人民自己做出选择和决定。”