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China protests over Australian warships in Taiwan Straits

Australia has attracted diplomatic criticism from China for the second time in as many days, this time over an incident involving three Australian Navy warships in the Taiwan Straits.

The official protest over the incident follows China's negative reaction to comments by Australian Prime Minister John Howard on the relationship between Beijing and the United States.

Tom O'Byrne reports from Beijing..

The incident involving the Australian and Chinese naval vessels took place earlier this month in the Taiwan Straits. According to a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, the three Australian ships were challenged for allegedly being in Chinese territorial waters. The Australians countered that they were following international conventions governing ships at sea, which did not require permission to pass through another country's territorial waters as China had demanded. China's official protest to the Australian embassy in Beijing came at the same time its embassy in Canberra was protesting over the Prime Minister's comments about the ongoing tensions between China and the United States. It's not yet clear whether Australia is planning any retaliatory action.

29/04/01 15:50:50 | ABC Radio Australia News

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