As Russia attacks Ukraine, China eyes the Indo-Pacific: Australian intelligence

Australia’s intelligence agency fears Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may spread into a regional or global conflict, with China focusing on the Indo-Pacific

Australian intelligence believes China could try to use the Indo-Pacific as a base to overtake the United States as the world’s leading power

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A Royal Australian Navy Anzac-class frigate sails in the Indian Ocean. Australian intelligence believes China is planning to dominate the Indo-Pacific as the world focuses on Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Photo: Capt. Daniel Glazier

Published: 2:08pm, 9 Mar 2022

A “troubling new strategic convergence” between Beijing and Moscow has developed and the risk of “major power conflict” had grown since Russia invaded Ukraine, Australia’s intelligence chief said on Wednesday.

Andrew Shearer, director general of the Office of National Intelligence, said China’s President Xi Jinping appears to be planning to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and use it as a base to overtake the United States as the world’s leading power.

The comments reinforce warnings that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has met near-universal condemnation by the West, may spread into a regional or global conflict. This week Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on liberal democracies to stop an “arc of autocracy” reshaping the world.

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier is accompanied by navy frigates and submarines conducting an exercises in the South China Sea. Photo: Xinhua via AP

“We’re going to have to work much harder to maintain the liberal quality of the rules-based order in Europe and here in the Indo-Pacific region,” Shearer said at a conference hosted by the Australian Financial Review.

“We see a leader who’s really battening down and hardening his country for this struggle to overtake the United States as the world’s leading power,” he added, referring to Xi.

“The base camp … is to establish primacy in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Shearer said the geopolitical threat would centre around technology, including use of cyberattacks, so Australia must bolster its cyber defences without closing itself to trade and information-sharing.