Second live firing exercise by Chinese ships in Tasman Sea
Saturday, 22 February 2025
A second live firing exercise has been undertaken by the Chinese Navy in the Tasman Sea.
Personnel on HMNZS Te Kaha saw live rounds being fired from the main gun from the Chinese cruiser Zunyi, one of three People’s Liberation Army ships which are now 350 nautical miles north east of Bass Strait.
The Chinese ships again advised via radio channels of its intent to conduct live firing, a spokesperson for Defence Minister Judith Collins said in a statement.
Defence and Civil Aviation Authority were making sure all aircraft were notified.
“The safety of all people, aircraft and vessels in the area remains our paramount concern,” the statement said.
The concerns over the lack of notice - usually a day or even two days’ notice is given - remained a concern and “will be communicated appropriately”, the statement said.
Earlier on Saturday Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the military exercises in the Tasman were within the bounds of the law - but more notice would have been good.
“There might be a better place to do live fire drills… [than] a busy international airspace,” Luxon said.
“Ideally, given how the busy the trans-Tasman is, we would want to have a bit more advance notice.”
No aircraft was said to have been at risk during the first exercise on Friday, which forced commercial flights, to divert course.
Defence Minister Judith Collins on Friday night said she had been keeping a close eye on the unfolding situation but was not aware of specific allegations that a Qantas flight on the way to Auckland was reportedly “harassed” while the Chinese warships were conducting firing exercises.
Defence experts have described the situation as “unprecedented” and “pretty extraordinary”.
While Luxon - speaking from Christchurch - was at pains to say China was operating within the bounds of international law and the UN convention on the law of the sea, asked if it was showing a sign of force, Luxon replied, “It is different from what we have observed before, there is no doubt about it.”
Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong raised the issue at a G20 summit under way in South Africa. New Zealand would also raise it with China, Luxon said.
Wong posted on social media earlier on Saturday that she had met with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi “on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting… calm and consistent dialogue with China enables us to progress our interests and advocate on issues that matter to Australians.”
New Zealand and Australia were in close talks over the military exercise, but Luxon said New Zealand was in the dark about exactly what China was doing.
The three warships have been in the Tasman unannounced since about midweek, and Luxon said there were many unanswered questions about the taskforce.
The warships include a frigate Hengyang, the cruiser named Zunyi and a supply vessel Weishanhu.
Said Luxon: “We haven’t been given a reason as to why they are here in this configuration, with this set of ships with different sets of capabilities, and we don’t have a sense of.. we haven’t been told where they are going, and why.”
New Zealand’s Te Kaha frigate and defence planes had been shadowing the exercise and were forced to pull back after the Chinese issued an alert to defence assets and commercial airlines that it would be conducting exercises, including potential live fire rounds.
Assets within 10 nautical miles were warned they should take cover - that included New Zealand. Commercial flights were forced to reroute. Luxon said it was still unclear if any firing had happened.
He spoke to Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday.
Luxon said while China had issued an alert, as was common practice, “good practice is normally we would have 24-48 hours notice”.
New Zealand would continue to monitor and track the fleet, but China was “completely within the [law]. We as a small country we want to uphold the rules based system. We benefit from that.”