A major threat to Australia's security due to the US-China rivalry

Sydney: The competition between two superpowers, the US and China, has been burdensome in the Indo-Pacific for the past few years. Both countries have increased their interference in Australia to obtain classified information. ‘More Australians are being targeted for espionage and foreign interference than at any time in Australia’s history,’ Australian Intelligence Chief Mike Burgess warned. Burgess claimed that Australian judges, journalists and former military officers were victims of this spying.

China had previously been accused of large-scale infiltration by Chinese spies into Australia’s political and educational systems. The Australian government had accused China’s intrusion of threatening our country’s security. Besides, strict steps were taken against China for this. But Australian authorities had admitted that this had not reduced the threat posed by Chinese spies.

On Tuesday, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation-ASIO’s director of intelligence, Mike Burgess, presented to the media the growing threat from competition between the US and China in the annual report. Burgess said that the US, Australia’s main ally, has been facing competition from China at all levels. Furthermore, he reminded China was challenging US hegemony in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula.

The competition between US and China has been flaring up to snatch over each other in this field. Additionally, Burgess claimed that these two countries were using Australia. Because Australia has been an ally of the United States, China has made a big intrusion into Australia to get information about the US. Moreover, Burgess pointed out that the US has chosen Australia to monitor China. He claimed that Australian judges, journalists and ex-military officers were being used to spy on each other.

Moreover, never before has there been such massive spying in Australia. But Burgees explained that this intensity had increased tremendously in the last few years. He also criticised Australia’s former military officers who sold their faith to authoritarian regimes and ‘put cash before the country’. Burgess seems to have targeted China without mentioning it directly. Burgess further said the spying posed a threat to Australia’s security.

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