Three Chinese warships are now being closely monitored off Australia’s north-east coast after a Chinese fighter jet aggressively deployed flares near an Australian surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea.

Former DFAT Australia-China Council Scholar Andrew Phelan told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, “Our geostrategic circumstances are the worst they’ve been since pre-World War II, except this is on a much bigger scale. I think the first question we ought to ask is, does China have a grand strategy?”

“And clearly it does, and it’s an expansionist military strategy.”

“They want to displace the US as the most powerful country in the region and they want to displace the US as the most powerful country in the world.”

“For Australia, that’s a problem because the US is our only mutual security treaty ally and so concerns are strong all over Asia,” Mr. Phelan said.

Hear more highlights from 4BC Breakfast below:

Image: ADF/9News

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