Chinese ambassador criticizes Australia's decision to restrict DeepSeek
The Australian government is one of the first in the world to ban DeepSeek on government devices (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
The Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, criticized Canberra's decision to ban the artificial intelligence app DeepSeek on government devices. He warned that this move could further politicize trade and technological ties between the two countries, which had only recently stabilized their bilateral relations, according to Bloomberg.
The ambassador's comments came as a Chinese naval task force continued to navigate Australia's territorial waters, planning to circumnavigate the island nation. Ten days earlier, Chinese military ships conducted live-fire drills in the Taman Sea, located between Australia and New Zealand.
Today, on Monday, Xiao stated in his article for The Australian that the artificial intelligence program developed by China will bring tremendous benefits to the world in various aspects. He urged Australia to cooperate 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.
Bloomberg reminded that in early February, Australia's left-leaning Labor government became one of the first in the world to ban DeepSeek on official (government) devices. The decision was justified on national security grounds.
This was one of a series of moves in the past month that threatened to sour relations between Australia and its largest trading partner. In particular, Canberra and Beijing have made significant efforts to restore their relations over the three years since the Labor Party's election in May 2022.
At the same time, the unexpected decision by the Chinese naval task force to conduct live-fire drills off the densely populated eastern coast of Australia starting on February 21 sparked a nationwide debate about whether Canberra had done enough to increase its military readiness. Australia learned about the drills only when commercial pilots, who had to leave the area, warned them.
After what happened, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticized the lack of notification from Beijing, while shadow Defense Minister Andrew Hastie described the drills as an open signal of military power from the Chinese government, reminding Australians that we cannot take anything for granted.
According to the Ministry of Defense, by Monday morning, the ships were located 565 kilometers southeast of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
First spotted near Australia's northern approaches in mid-February, the task force of three ships had already completed almost two-thirds of its journey around the country.
