Australia urges China to be more open about its military capabilities - The Australian

Defence Minister Stephen Smith addresses the China Institute for International Strategic Studies in Beijing. Source: Supplied

DEFENCE Minister Stephen Smith has urged China to be more open about its military capabilities and strategic doctrine.

Speaking in Beijing, Mr Smith sought to assuage Chinese concerns over Australia's strategic stance towards China.

The move follows revelations that a secret chapter in the 2009 defence white paper focused on Australia's ability to fight an air-sea battle alongside the US against China.

Mr Smith told the China Institute for International Strategic Studies that Australia's recently-bolstered strategic alliance with the United States was not inconsistent with its relationship with China.

He said China's rise was changing the global order, and as its economy grew so would its strategic influence.

“China maintains the world's largest standing military, with advanced capabilities, including ballistic missiles,” Mr Smith said.

“With this rise comes added strategic responsibilities for China, including the need for greater openness and transparency in relation to capabilities and strategic doctrine.

“Australia is positive and optimistic about China's emergence. Australia wants China to emerge as a constructive player in a harmonious global order.”

Mr Smith, on his first visit to China as Defence Minister, said it was inevitable that tensions would arise in the Australia-China relationship, and the challenge was in managing the relationship.

“We do so through frank exchange and dialogue and with mutual respect,' he said.

He said Australia took no position on contested Chinese territorial claims.

Mr Smith said the relationship between the two nations, in which two-way trade has reached $120 billion a year, was one of mutual benefit.

“China matters a great deal indeed to Australia. But so too, does Australia matter to China,' Mr Smith said.

A new book - The Kingdom and the Quarry: China, Australia, Fear and Greed - reveals defence planners considered a China war scenario in which Australian submarines would help blockade Chinese trade routes and Chinese missiles could be fired at Australia in retaliation.

The public version of the white paper stopped short of declaring that a war with China was feared.

To avoid offending the Chinese, and to create a degree of deniability, discussion of possible future conflict relied on euphemisms such as a “major power adversary”.