Chinese intelligence expected to monitor Australia’s Talisman Sabre military exercises

The Haiwangxing, a Chinese Dongdiao class auxiliary intelligence ship, in 2022. Chinese intelligence is likely to seek to monitor the Talisman Sabre military training exercises in the Pacific again this year. Photograph: ADF/AFP/Getty Images

The Australian defence force expects that Chinese intelligence will seek to monitor Talisman Sabre, a military training exercise involving 30,000 personnel from 13 countries including the US and Pacific neighbours.

There is precedent for such monitoring attempts. In 2021, the Australian government said it was keeping an eye on the Chinese auxiliary general intelligence vessel Tianwangxing as it approached Australia’s east coast in the run-up to Talisman Sabre.