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China flash of fury at Australian military boost
Chinese officials reacted furiously to Australia's plans to expand its defence force in part to counter the Asian giant's growing military presence, diplomatic cables published Friday showed.
Cables published in part in the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that one official had warned Canberra it would "suffer the consequences" if comments about China in a 2009 defence planning document were not altered.
The US diplomatic cables, which are among tens of thousands that whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun releasing, state that then senior Australian defence official Mike Pezzullo was met with a frosty reception by Chinese officials whom he briefed about the defence paper before its release.
The cables date from May 2009, the same month in which the defence paper urged an expansion of Australia's air and naval capability in response to a regional military build-up and shifts in power.
Australia also named Beijing as the region's strongest emerging military power and questioned its motives for amassing force in the long-term defence blueprint, which said that China's military modernisation appeared potentially to be beyond the scope of what would be required for a conflict over Taiwan.
According to one cable, Pezzullo told US diplomats he was "dressed down" by the deputy director of foreign affairs in China's defence ministry, Major-General Jia Xiaoning, who "demanded Australia make changes to the paper or suffer the consequences".
Another cable reported that Pezzullo said Jia had a "look of cold fury" on his face at the repeated mention of China in the defence paper.
Pezzullo later reported that the Chinese attitude had softened by the time of a second round of briefings, adding that Beijing had apparently appreciated the advance notice of the paper's contents.
In the same cable, he also said that Japan's reaction to the paper was to be shocked at Australia's plans to double its submarine fleet to 12.
"The (Japanese) defence vice-minister did a 'double take' and noted that Japan had only 16 submarines," it said.
Australia's former prime minister Kevin Rudd confessed that the bloody conflict in Afghanistan "scares the hell out of" him, newly leaked diplomatic cables revealed Friday.
Rudd, currently foreign minister, was revealed in confidential US diplomatic cables from Canberra to have confided his pessimism over the likely outcome of the conflict, in which 1,550 Australian troops are engaged.
Rudd also derided the contributions of Germany and France in Afghanistan in fighting Taliban insurgents, saying they were "organising folk dancing festivals" while Australians fought in restive Uruzgan province.
An October 2008 cable from the US embassy in Canberra reveals that Rudd told visiting US congressmen that "the national security establishment in Australia was very pessimistic about the long-term prognosis for Afghanistan", Fairfax newspapers reported.
Australian officials have repeatedly stressed that progress is slowly being made in Afghanistan and that Australian forces were on track to hand over security in Uruzgan to Afghan forces within two to four years.
According to the cables Rudd said "he supported the Afghan war 'from day one' but confided that 'Afghanistan scares the hell out of me'."
On European allies in the war which has claimed 21 Australian lives, Rudd said there was "no common strategy for winning the war or winning the peace".
AFP: China flash of fury at Australian military boost: cables
Chinese officials reacted furiously to Australia's plans to expand its defence force in part to counter the Asian giant's growing military presence, diplomatic cables published Friday showed.
Cables published in part in the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that one official had warned Canberra it would "suffer the consequences" if comments about China in a 2009 defence planning document were not altered.
The US diplomatic cables, which are among tens of thousands that whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun releasing, state that then senior Australian defence official Mike Pezzullo was met with a frosty reception by Chinese officials whom he briefed about the defence paper before its release.
The cables date from May 2009, the same month in which the defence paper urged an expansion of Australia's air and naval capability in response to a regional military build-up and shifts in power.
Australia also named Beijing as the region's strongest emerging military power and questioned its motives for amassing force in the long-term defence blueprint, which said that China's military modernisation appeared potentially to be beyond the scope of what would be required for a conflict over Taiwan.
According to one cable, Pezzullo told US diplomats he was "dressed down" by the deputy director of foreign affairs in China's defence ministry, Major-General Jia Xiaoning, who "demanded Australia make changes to the paper or suffer the consequences".
Another cable reported that Pezzullo said Jia had a "look of cold fury" on his face at the repeated mention of China in the defence paper.
Pezzullo later reported that the Chinese attitude had softened by the time of a second round of briefings, adding that Beijing had apparently appreciated the advance notice of the paper's contents.
In the same cable, he also said that Japan's reaction to the paper was to be shocked at Australia's plans to double its submarine fleet to 12.
"The (Japanese) defence vice-minister did a 'double take' and noted that Japan had only 16 submarines," it said.
Australia's former prime minister Kevin Rudd confessed that the bloody conflict in Afghanistan "scares the hell out of" him, newly leaked diplomatic cables revealed Friday.
Rudd, currently foreign minister, was revealed in confidential US diplomatic cables from Canberra to have confided his pessimism over the likely outcome of the conflict, in which 1,550 Australian troops are engaged.
Rudd also derided the contributions of Germany and France in Afghanistan in fighting Taliban insurgents, saying they were "organising folk dancing festivals" while Australians fought in restive Uruzgan province.
An October 2008 cable from the US embassy in Canberra reveals that Rudd told visiting US congressmen that "the national security establishment in Australia was very pessimistic about the long-term prognosis for Afghanistan", Fairfax newspapers reported.
Australian officials have repeatedly stressed that progress is slowly being made in Afghanistan and that Australian forces were on track to hand over security in Uruzgan to Afghan forces within two to four years.
According to the cables Rudd said "he supported the Afghan war 'from day one' but confided that 'Afghanistan scares the hell out of me'."
On European allies in the war which has claimed 21 Australian lives, Rudd said there was "no common strategy for winning the war or winning the peace".
AFP: China flash of fury at Australian military boost: cables
