Australia will ‘watch every move’ of Chinese warships detected 150 nautical miles from Sydney

<p>Ships’ presence off east coast follows incident in South China Sea in which a Chinese fighter jet released flares in front of Australian military plane</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/feb/20/australia-news-live-richard-marles-defence-china-png-pacific-election-cost-of-living-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-nsw-vic-qld-ntwnfb">Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates</a></li><li>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></li></ul><p>Australia will “watch every move” of three Chinese warships which have been detected 150 nautical miles off Sydney, on Australia’s east coast, the defence minister has said.</p><p>Three People’s Liberation Army-Navy vessels – the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class cruiser Zunyi<em> </em>and the<em> </em>Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu<em> – </em>were detected off north-east Queensland last week and have been surveilled since as they have sailed south.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=copyembed">Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email</a></strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/20/australia-will-watch-every-move-of-chinese-warships-detected-150-nautical-miles-from-sydney">Continue reading...</a>