Taiwan is a small cookie crumb for China, the big piece of cake is Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. China is planning a special operation that would absorb Australia and the surrounding islands into its growing empire.
Live fire drills by the Chinese communist navy in the Tasman Sea off the coast of Eastern Australia are a small indication of the aspirations of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
The distance to Australia from Chinese water is negligible, and to have three Chinese naval vessels called Task Group 107 – including a Jiangkai-class frigate, a Renhai-class cruiser and a Fuchi-class replenishment vessel – conducting exercises in Australian waters is a contentious and ominous augur.
Chinese media has celebrated the move as a show of China’s supreme power, boasting that Australia could be taken in less than two weeks.
Once Australia is absorbed into Chinese control, New Zealand and Tasmania would also be integrated within a day or so as they are tiny islands, like Taiwan.
China has proven how weak Australia is to a full invasion, especially as Canberra did not even realise until it was too late that the Chinese flotilla were in Australian territorial waters. The vast landmass of Australia is mostly uninhabited, which leaves it a sitting duck to an enemy landing party. The incursion into Eastern Australian waters is proof that China is planning something in the future.
As of 2024, the PLAN is the second-largest navy in the world by total displacement tonnage — at 2 million tons in 2024, behind only the United States Navy (USN) — and the largest navy globally by number of active sea-going ships (excluding coastal missile boats, gunboats and minesweepers) with over 370 surface ships and submarines in service, compared to approximately 292 ships and submarines in the USN.
