China’s ambassador criticises Australia’s move to limit DeepSeek

CANBERRA – China’s ambassador to Australia has warned that a decision to ban artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from government systems and devices risks further politicising trade and technology ties between the two countries, which only recently stabilised bilateral relations.

Ambassador Xiao Qian’s comments came as a Chinese naval task force

continued to skirt Australia’s territorial waters

in an apparent plan to circumnavigate the island nation. Ten days ago, the warships held live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.

Writing in The Australian newspaper on March 3, Mr Xiao said the Chinese-developed AI program would “greatly benefit the world in various aspects” and encouraged Australia to work with Beijing to jointly develop new technologies. 

“Taking restrictive measures against it under the pretext of ‘security risks’ is an attempt to overstretch the concept of national security and politicise trade and tech issues,” the ambassador said in his article.

In early February, Australia’s centre-left Labor government became one of the first countries in the world to ban DeepSeek from official devices, a decision that it justified on national security grounds.

It was one of a number of moves over the past month that have threatened to sour ties between Australia and its largest trading partner. Canberra and Beijing have both made serious efforts to repair their relationship in the three years since the Labor Party’s election in May 2022.

The Chinese naval task force’s surprise decision to hold live-fire drills off Australia’s heavily populated east coast starting on Feb 21 has sparked a national debate over whether Canberra has done enough to boost its military preparedness. Australia only learnt of the exercises when it was alerted by

commercial pilots who had to divert from the area

.

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised the lack of notice provided by Beijing, Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie described the exercises as an “overt signal of military strength from the Chinese government, and it’s a reminder to Australians that we can’t take anything for granted”.

On the morning of March 3, the ships were 305 nautical miles south-east of Western Australia’s state capital Perth, according to the Department of Defence.

First spotted near Australia’s northern approaches in mid-February, the three-ship task force has now sailed almost two-thirds of the way around the island nation. BLOOMBERG