https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...lies-3vm3mldp2
Chinese military expansion into Pacific ‘poses greatest threat to America and allies’
China represents the most “comprehensive, long-term” threat to America and its allies of any world power, the US military has claimed.
The warning comes amid fears about the true purpose of a £112 million fishing complex Beijing is building close to Australia’s waters.....
Among looming concerns is a deal between China and Papua New Guinea (PNG) to build a fisheries complex in the Torres Strait, 40 miles from Australia’s northern islands. The proposal has provoked fears that the plant will become a de facto naval base for Beijing.
The Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Company has signed a deal backed by the Chinese government to build the A$200 million (£112 million) complex on the impoverished Daru island. Jeffrey Wall, a former adviser to PNG’s foreign ministry, suggested that Beijing would use the deal as a pretext to build a wharf capable of mooring Chinese navy ships 124 miles from mainland Australia.
In an article for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra think tank close to defence leaders, Mr Wall wrote that the seas around Daru were not known to have commercial fishing resources. But he pointed out that they were “strategically as close to Australia as you can get”.
“In my view, what they are going to do, first of all, is build a very large wharf,” he said. “When you build a very large wharf, what do you build? Somewhere where naval vessels can land.”.....