Zhang Junshe, a Chinese naval expert, told the Global Times on Sunday that while Australia claimed the incident happened in Japan's exclusive economic zone, it did not give the exact location.
If the incident took place in waters to the west of Japan, China and Japan have not carried out maritime delimitation in relevant waters, so Japan's self-proclaimed exclusive economic zone could be well within waters administered by China, Zhang said.
Another Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday that Australia likely intentionally chose not to disclose the exact location because it has a guilty conscience.
"Did the incident take place near China's Diaoyu Islands or the island of Taiwan? Or was it close to a PLA training exercise? If that is the case, it was obvious that the Australian warship provoked China in the first place," the expert said.
Analysts pointed out that the Australian press release is one-sided as it failed to mention the Chinese input during the communications between the two countries' ships.
Since the Australian side admitted that it had established communications with the Chinese side, it is very likely that the Chinese ship issued verbal warnings which the Australian ship had ignored, and the Chinese ship was forced to take the ensuing step which was to send a warning through sonar, the abovementioned anonymous expert said.
Let's read the Global Times article.
>Be Kangaroo navy
>Sail thousands of miles to antagonize China
>Get propeller tangled in fishing nets
>Aussie_Competence.gif
>Chinese ship arrives, tells you to fuck off
>Can't leave due to Aussie Competence
>Chinese ship tells you to fuck off with sonar ping
>Cry crocodile tears on Kangaroo TV
The fact that the Chinese navy intervened suggests that it's likely a Chinese fishing net in contested EEZ.
I don't know about you, but "Australian warship sails into Chinese waters and fucks up Chinese fisherman's nets and livelihood" doesn't sound great.