Chinese spy ship spotted off coast of South Australia

By MATT JONES FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 02:35 BST, 31 March 2025 | Updated: 03:12 BST, 31 March 2025

A Chinese government ship is currently sitting off the South Australian coast tracking a similar route to an Australian deep-sea submarine cable.

The vessel is considered a ‘spy ship’ and is within Australia’s exclusive economic zone.

The ship has the ability to drop a mini submarine that can reach up to 10,000 metres below sea-level.

The vessel is said to not only be a research ship but one that collects intelligence.

If it is following Australia’s submarine cable, it could be mapping or even signalling that it has the capability to cut the cable. 

Underwater sea cables are vital to Australia’s communication systems, carrying most of the country’s internet capability which underpins critical water and transport infrastructure. 

The ship had been in Wellington on a joint exploration exercise with New Zealand.

But instead of following the most direct route back to China, it is circling the Australian coast.

It travelled through the Tasman Sea, between New Zealand and Australia, then into the Bass Strait before heading to South Australia.

Chinese scientific research vessel Tan Suo Yi Hao is currently off the coast of South Australia

Former Home Affairs Department boss Michael Pezzullo said China would be interested in undersea oceanography off the Australian coast

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said ‘he’d prefer that (the ship) wasn’t there’.

‘But we live in circumstances where, just as Australia has vessels in the South China Sea and vessels in the Taiwan Strait and a range of areas, this vessel is there,’ Mr Albanese said.

‘Our task is to make sure that we represent Australia’s national interests. We do that each and every day.

‘And I have every confidence, every confidence, in our Defence Force and our security agencies to do just that.’

The ship, called ‘Tan Suo’ is following a similar route to the one taken by a Chinese warship last month where it conducted live-fire exercises off the coast of the Tasman Sea.

The ship is 94 metres long and nearly 18 metres wide and the China Daily has reported that it has 11 laboratories onboard along with data processing and information centres and ‘serves as a base for the submersible, deep-sea expeditions and engineering.’

After its maiden voyage in 2016, the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bai Chunli said it was ‘a milestone for China in terms of deep-sea expeditions’. 

The mapping conducted by the ship in Australia could mean China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy could plan submarine operations according to former Home Affairs Department boss Michael Pezzullo.

‘All such research is made available to the PLA, and is probably shaped by PLA research priorities,’ he said.

‘The PLA would be vitally interested in undersea oceanography off the Australian coast (including the Southern Ocean).’

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Chinese spy ship spotted off coast of South Australia

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