From The Australian Financial Review, December 1:
Outgoing spy chief Andrew Shearer has warned that the region risks a major conflict within a decade, accusing China of cultivating Pacific elites and pushing spurious territorial claims.
Shearer, who is the director-general of the Office of National Intelligence, also accused “malign states” of colluding with criminals and non-state actors to enable hacking, sabotage, assassinations and political inference.
“The guardrails that for decades separated competition from confrontation and conflict are weakening,” Shearer said in his final Senate estimates appearance before he takes up his new role as ambassador to Japan.
“Crises are overlapping and intersecting, bringing threats on shore faster, sometimes in real time. Warning times are shorter, meaning we have to act now if we are to be prepared for what may be coming and some of the assumptions that underpinned international stability for decades can no longer be taken for granted.
“Most consequentially, should deterrence break down, notwithstanding the efforts of our government and our allies, we would face a rising risk of major conflict in our region within the next decade.”
In a veiled swipe at Beijing’s activities across the region, Shearer said the struggle for influence had intensified on every front.
“In the Pacific, efforts to build influence over elites have become more overt and sustained. In South-East Asia, dangerous interceptions and rising tensions around the South China Sea illustrate how coercive tactics are increasingly used to assert spurious territorial claims,” Shearer said.
“China’s growing power projection across a widening swath of the Indo-Pacific, exemplified by the February circumnavigation of Australia … demonstrates the speed, confidence and reach that now characterises regional military capability development and competition.”
Defence Minister Richard Marles on Monday confirmed that Defence was tracking the trajectory of a Chinese naval flotilla in the Philippines Sea, which sources said could reach Australia by the end of the year....
....MUCH MORE
And another spook, November 19 at The Australian:
"Former Top [Australian] Spy, Nick Warner Sounds Warning On Quantum Arms Race In Defence Tech"
