news

[Global Times Special Correspondent Wen Jian] According to a Reuters report on the 26th, the US military is building infrastructure in northern Australia to project power into the South China Sea "in the event of a conflict with China." "As relations with China become increasingly tense, northern Australia has once again become a strategic location in the Indo-Pacific region, and the United States has quietly begun to build facilities worth hundreds of millions of dollars there." Reuters said that these infrastructures are deployed in the northern Australian city of Darwin and the Tindal Air Force Base, about 300 kilometers south of it. The former has long been stationed by rotating troops from the Australian Defense Force and the US Marine Corps, while the latter is the location of the main Australian Air Force and a temporary base for US fighter jets in recent exercises.

The facilities are reportedly designed to support the deployment of B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters, and refueling and transport aircraft. A tender document seen by Reuters shows that the upgrade projects currently being prepared include intelligence briefing rooms, bomber runways, warehouses, data centers and maintenance hangars, and the projects are scheduled to start in 2024 and 2025. Relevant officials told Reuters that large-scale fuel storage facilities have now been built.

"(These projects) will make northern Australia the largest overseas region for US Air Force and Navy construction spending, with the US Congress approving more than $300 million for this purpose over the years." The head of the Royal Australian Air Force's capital facilities and infrastructure department also said that Washington is paying for infrastructure upgrades in Darwin and Tindal.

In 2021, then Australian Prime Minister Morrison announced that he would spend 747 million Australian dollars (about 3.55 billion yuan) to upgrade northern military bases. In the name of "guarding against China", the United States began planning to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Tindal Air Force Base in 2022. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said that the deployment of these bombers is part of a large-scale defense asset upgrade plan in northern Australia, which also includes a large-scale expansion of the "Pine Valley" intelligence base in the central region.

The plan was opposed by many people at the time. Australian anti-nuclear activist Richard Tanter said: "This is a more public signal to China that we support the US war plan against China." Tanter also said that the increasing importance of Australia's northern region to the United States makes Darwin and Tindal targets of attack when the United States goes to war with China.

However, defense officials from Australia and the United States interviewed by Reuters claimed that the new facility "should not be characterized as a US base". Foreign military bases are a sensitive issue in Australia. In 2012, then Australian Defense Minister Smith said that establishing a foreign military base in Australia would undermine Australia's sovereignty. Some analysts believe that there are signs that Australia has brought US combat troops and its military strategy to its coastline, which may involve Australia in a war that has nothing to do with its own interests.