PLA propaganda footage exposes weakness in Australia's secrecy obsession

The 13 September footage reportedly displayed a heated interaction between a Royal Australian Air Force P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft and Shenyang J-16 multirole fighter jet from the People’s Republic of China in the South China Sea region during 2022.

The J-16 fighter jet trails the other aircraft before overtaking to fire flares and release aluminum chaff countermeasures into the flight path of the P-8 in international airspace.

In a voice over of the footage, the Chinese pilot reportedly describes “facing a strong enemy”, “showing swords to the enemy” and “forcing the other aircraft away from Chinese territory”, according to the ABC.

The release of the footage, which depicts active military operations by the notoriously secretive People’s Republic of China comes in sharp contrast to a once-again mute response from Australia’s own Department of Defence.

In a documentary, China released a real footage of PLA J16 intercepting Australian P-8A Poseidon by releasing IR decoy flare.

pic.twitter.com/x8h0C9ESZX

— Li Zexin (@XH_Lee23) September 13, 2024

“Defence advises that on 26 May 2022, a RAAF P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft was intercepted by a Chinese J-16 fighter aircraft during a routine maritime surveillance activity in international airspace in the South China Sea region,” Defence said in an official statement on 5 June 2022 regarding the altercation.

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“The intercept resulted in a dangerous manoeuvre which posed a safety threat to the P-8 aircraft and its crew. The Australian government has raised its concerns about the incident with the Chinese government.

“Defence has for decades undertaken maritime surveillance activities in the region and does so in accordance with international law, exercising the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace. Defence will not be commenting further on this matter.”

The deafening silence is part of an ongoing secrecy obsession permeating Australia’s Department of Defence.

A similar incident made international headlines when a People’s Liberation Army Navy jet intercepted and dropped flares into the flight path of an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter on 4 May this year.

The helicopter had been deployed by Hobart Class Destroyer HMAS Hobart during Operation Argos. When questioned about the incident, Defence outlined that it was unable to provide any physical confirmation of the incident such as footage, still imagery or audio records.

That altercation also follows another cone of silence from Defence involving an incident in November last year when Royal Australian Navy divers were injured by a People’s Liberation Army-Navy destroyer in international waters.

The crew of Anzac Class frigate HMAS Toowoomba suffered minor injuries after being exposed to sonar pulses from hull-mounted sonar on a PLA-N destroyer (DDG-139) operating within international waters, inside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, on 14 November. Footage was not released of that incident either.

Liberal Party senator for South Australia, Senator Simon Birmingham, speaking to ABC Radio RN Breakfast earlier this month, voiced accustomed frustration at the lack of a noticeable response from the Australian federal government regarding the latest propaganda video.

“This video appears to be an unacceptable glorification of unacceptable military conduct,” he said.

“There really are two serious points of concern here. The first goes back to the military conduct itself. And there are far too many instances now in relation to Chinese military conduct towards Australia and many other regional partners, particularly and notably the Philippines in recent times, where that conduct has been unduly risky, aggressive and creates a circumstance of possible miscalculation or escalation that none of us would wish to see.

“The second issue being, of course, now this propaganda video, which appears to glorify and encourage this type of conduct, rather than seeking to ensure that military conduct is undertaken responsibly.

“Disturbingly within this video, it appears to describe Australia as an enemy and an opponent, and that is certainly not how we see ourselves in relation to the type of relationship we wish to have with China.

“Incidents like these necessitate the Albanese government to show strength. There has been too much timidity on the part of the Prime Minister in particular, who infamously refused to raise issues in relation to Chinese military conduct with the Chinese president when he had the opportunity (raised later by government elsewhere).

“We do welcome the thawing of the relationship, and we do wish to have a stable relationship with China. We wish to see growth in trade and economic ties and cooperation in other fields where we can cooperate in terms of regional security issues like the trafficking of drugs or regional health issues. And those areas are really important, and we want to do so in an environment of peace and stability.

“That peace and stability is jeopardised by the way in which the People’s Liberation Army of China conducts itself, and this type of risky conduct does need to be called out. And yes, when the Prime Minister of Australia has the opportunity face to face with the President of China to raise these types of concerns, we should take it up. Not because we wish to damage relations, but because we wish to have a peaceful and stable region, and that we are willing to call out conduct that risks and undermines that.

“We should be making strong representations to China about this video, which, as I said, in and of itself is concern for the language used in it, describing Australia as an enemy and for the glorification of this type of unacceptable military conduct. And we should be seeking to make those representations not just at officials’ level, but also at a ministerial level.”

The obvious retort to calls for greater transparency around such operations involves how the release of any footage by Australia’s government or Department of Defence would conform to national security guidelines. Understandably, no one wants to make public the military secrets of our nation and put the Australian Defence Force at a disadvantage.

There may be sensitive documents, strategy and equipment which would not be approved for public viewing and could prevent such a release. However, the current “radio silence” approach indicates that either no recordings are being made, current approvals guidelines are inadequate or more likely, there is significant over-classification of secrecy guidelines.

Are we honestly expected to believe that the People’s Republic of China (considered to be one of the most tightly controlled information regions in the world) has mistakenly released sensitive information in this propaganda film?

AUKUS ally the United States of America and other nations such as Canada have already established routine declassification of similar aircraft interception incidents in the South China Sea to promote public support for their militaries and showcase PRC “bad behaviour” on the world stage.

In October last year, the US Department of Defense itself declassified images and videos depicting 15 dangerous manoeuvres including close approaches at high speed, release of flares, and reckless manoeuvres undertaken by the People’s Liberation Army against US aircraft over the East and South China Sea.

Final Thoughts

It’s clear that the 2022 incident in the skies over the South China Sea has showed plain the weakness of Defence’s traditional approach of “If something is too hard, then just keep it classified” in regard to operations and approvals.

This approach is especially antiquated when considering there is a growing need for morale-boosting information and transparency to further stimulate Australian Defence Force recruiting.

It’s time to move with the times and push for greater public support rather than withholding the basic level of information that shows the duty, courage and actions of our ADF personnel.