For nearly a month, Australian forces were on alert as a flotilla of Chinese navy ships made an unannounced voyage around the continent. The ships sailed in and out of Australia’s exclusive economic zone. They fired live shots near commercial airspace, forcing dozens of civilian flights to reroute. They sailed past Perth in Western Australia, days after a visiting U.S. nuclear submarine docked at a nearby naval base.

在将近一个月的时间里，澳大利亚军队一直处于戒备状态，因为一支中国海军舰队未事先通报的情况下环绕该大陆航行。舰队的船只进出澳大利亚的专属经济区，在商业飞行空域附近发射实弹，迫使数十架民航班机在飞行途中改变航线。舰队还驶过了西澳大利亚的珀斯，一艘来访的美国核潜艇前几天曾停靠在附近的海军基地。

Finally, last weekend, the Chinese ships headed north toward Indonesia.

中国军舰终于在上周末向北驶向印度尼西亚方向。

Australian officials repeatedly assured the public that the Chinese ships’ presence and actions were perfectly legitimate under international law. But the voyage was the farthest south the Chinese military had ever come, and was deeply uncomfortable for Australia.

虽然澳大利亚官员多次向公众保证，中国舰艇的出现和行为完全符合国际法，但这次航行是中国海军有史以来到达的最南端，并让澳大利亚深感不安。

It has forced the nation to take a hard look at its own aging fleet, its heavy military dependence on a faraway ally, the United States, and the increasing muscularity of its biggest trading partner, China.

这迫使澳大利亚不得不认真地审视本国日益老化的舰队，在军事上对遥远盟友美国的依赖，以及最大的贸易伙伴中国日益强大的军事实力等问题。

There was nothing about the deployment of the three Chinese vessels — a cruiser, a frigate and a replenishment tanker — that was technically impressive or strategically significant. China’s formidable navy has long demonstrated the vast distances it can cover and the capabilities of its premier ships.

中国派出的三艘舰艇（一艘巡洋舰、一艘护卫舰、一艘补给油料舰）在技术上和战略上都没有什么突出之处。中国强大的海军早已展示了覆盖广阔水域的能力，及其超级舰艇的实力。

Instead, it ended up highlighting Australia’s inadequacies: its own navy is the oldest and smallest it has been since World War II, analysts and former navy officials say. It has two tankers, which are crucial for navigating long distances, as the Chinese did, but both have been out of commission for months. The two Chinese warships had a combined 144 vertical launch missile cells, while the Royal Australian Navy’s 10 warships, altogether, have 200.

事实上，这次航行最终突出的是澳大利亚自身的不足：分析人士和前海军官员称，澳大利亚海军是该国自第二次世界大战以来舰艇最陈旧、规模最小的海军。澳大利亚海军有两艘对远程航行至关重要的油料舰（中国海军的这次航行就使用了这种舰船），但那两艘油料舰都已暂时停用几个月了。中国这次派遣的两艘军舰上共有144个舰载导弹垂直发射系统，而澳大利亚皇家海军的10艘军舰加起来总共只有200个这种系统。

“The Chinese are showing us up in our own backyard,” said Marcus Hellyer, an expert on military spending and capability who previously worked for Australia’s defense department.

“中国人正在我们自己的后院里让我们难堪，”研究军事支出和能力的专家马库斯·赫勒说，他曾在澳大利亚国防部工作。

“We can’t even sail around our own country. They are really rubbing it in,” he said. Australian forces, could of course, rely on friendly countries like New Zealand, which refueled an Australian ship in the Tasman Sea as the two countries jointly surveilled the Chinese ships.

“我们甚至没有环绕自己国家航行的能力。他们真的触及了我们的痛处，”他说。当然，澳大利亚军队能依赖新西兰等友好国家，在这两个国家对中国舰队进行联合监视期间，新西兰为一艘在塔斯曼海航行的澳大利亚舰艇加了油。

The firestorm the flotilla ignited in Australia is an indication of how China could take advantage of a moment when the staunchest of American allies are being forced to revisit longstanding assumptions about ties to Washington. The United States has not officially commented on the Chinese ships, even though they coincided with the visit of a top U.S. commander and a U.S. submarine to Australia.

中国舰队在澳大利亚引发的轩然大波表明，在美国最坚定的盟友们正在被迫重新审视与华盛顿关系的长期假定之际，中国有可能利用这一机会。美国尚未对中国舰艇的出现发表官方评论，尽管中国的行动恰逢一名美国高级指挥官和一艘美国潜艇访问澳大利亚。

上个月，一艘美国潜艇曾在西澳大利亚州的罗金厄姆停靠。澳大利亚已大力加强了与美国的军事同盟关系。

Chinese officials have said they were carrying out training in international waters as all navies do, and had nothing to explain or apologize for.

中国官员已表示，中国海军正在国际水域进行训练，这与所有国家海军的做法一样，没有什么可解释或道歉的。

That hasn’t stopped the speculation in Australia about the timing and the message it was designed to send. The ships encircled Australia as the Trump administration has been upending expectations about continued U.S. support for allies like Europe and Ukraine. Australia is about to hold a federal election, in which the ships all but guaranteed that defense will be a major talking point.

但这并没有阻止澳大利亚对中国这次行动的时间选择和试图传递的信息进行猜测。就在特朗普政府颠覆人们对美国继续支持欧洲和乌克兰等盟友的预期之际，中国海军舰队进行了环澳洲航行。澳大利亚即将举行联邦选举，中国军舰的出现差不多确保了国防将成为选举的主要议题。

“China’s navy is illustrating Australia’s vulnerability at the exact moment that the U.S. is demonstrating American unreliability,” Peter Hartcher, the political and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote last month. Between the “buccaneering” in Washington and China’s military drumbeat, he wrote: “We’re so exposed that we face the next decade near-naked.”

“就在美国展示其不可靠性的时候，中国海军凸显了澳大利亚的脆弱性，”《悉尼先驱晨报》政治和国际部编辑彼得·哈彻尔上个月写道。他写道，在华盛顿的“恣意行事”和中国军队动作频频之间，“我们如此脆弱，以至于未来十年我们将几乎毫无防御之力。”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government has spent the past few years working hard to stabilize relations with China, which had hit a low point under the previous government, with China imposing crippling trade restrictions.

在过去几年里，澳大利亚的安东尼·阿尔巴尼斯政府一直在努力稳定澳中关系，在上届政府执政期间，两国关系跌至低谷，中国实施了给澳大利亚带来严重损害的贸易限制措施。

At the same time, Australia has doubled down on its military alliance with the United States. In February, it paid half a billion dollars to Washington as a down payment to bolster the U.S. submarine industry, to eventually receive used U.S. nuclear submarines as part of a security pact with America and Britain known as AUKUS.

与此同时，澳大利亚已大力加强了与美国的军事联盟。今年2月，澳大利亚向华盛顿支付了五亿美元，以加强美国的潜艇工业，这笔钱也是最终购买美国二手核动力潜艇的首付款，购买这种潜艇是澳大利亚与美国和英国达成名为AUKUS的安全协议的一部分。

Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, that President Trump was “very aware, supportive” of the three-way agreement. But a few weeks later, when a reporter asked Mr. Trump whether he would discuss AUKUS with Britain’s prime minister, Mr. Trump asked: “What does that mean?”

上个月，美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯曾对他的澳大利亚同行理查德·马尔斯表示，特朗普总统对澳英美三方协议“非常了解，非常支持”。但几周后，当记者问特朗普是否会与英国首相讨论AUKUS时，特朗普问道：“那是什么意思？”

民众在海军周期间参观悉尼的一个基地，摄于上周六。

Australia first detected the Chinese ships in early February, one to the north and the other two to the northeast. It tracked them as they traveled south along its eastern coast, entering Australia’s exclusive economic zone near Sydney.

澳大利亚在今年2月初首次发现了中国军舰，一艘军舰出现在澳洲北部，另外两艘出现在东北部。澳大利亚对这些军舰进行了跟踪，它们在澳洲东海岸以外的公海向南行驶，曾在悉尼附近进入澳大利亚的专属经济区。

The unease over the ships became full blown alarm on Feb. 21, when a commercial pilot flying over the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand heard radio broadcasts from the Chinese vessels warning of live fire drills. The pilot informed Australia’s civil aviation service, which scrambled to divert flights in the area. Nearly 50 planes would end up changing course.

澳大利亚民众对中国海军舰队的不安今年2月21日彻底演变为恐慌。那天，一名正在澳大利亚与新西兰之间的塔斯曼海上空飞行的民航飞行员收到中国军舰发出的无线电警告，称中国军舰将在该水域进行实弹演习。该飞行员通知了澳大利亚民航服务部门，后者紧急调整了飞越该水域的航班，最终有近50个民航班机改线。

The drills came as a surprise to both Australia and New Zealand but both acknowledged they were legal. One ship had the potential to carry land-attack missiles or anti-ship ballistic missiles.

虽然中国海军的演习让澳大利亚和新西兰感到惊讶，但两国都承认舰队的航行合法。其中一艘舰艇有可能携带对地攻击导弹或反舰弹道导弹。

China’s response was, in essence: Get used to it.

中国对澳洲反应的回应基本上就是：习惯就好了。

“As a major power in this region, as a country that has so many things to look after, it is normal for China to send their vessels to different parts of the region to conduct various kinds of activities,” Xiao Qian, China’s ambassador to Australia, told Australia’s national broadcaster.

“作为该区域的一个大国，作为一个需要关注许多事务的国家，中国向区域的不同地方派遣舰艇进行各种活动是正常的，”中国驻澳大利亚大使肖千接受澳大利亚国家广播公司采访时说。

悉尼的HMAS Kuttabul海军基地，摄于上周六。澳大利亚政府计划对海军舰队进行升级，但一些专家对澳大利亚的工业能否完成这个任务表示怀疑。

China’s navy, already the world’s largest and rapidly expanding, has also been more aggressive in making its presence felt elsewhere in Asia. Japan’s defense minister said last month that Chinese navy ships had passed through the waters around the Ryukyu Islands — a chain that stretches between Kyushu and Taiwan — a total of 68 times last year, a dramatic increase from 21 times in 2021.

中国的海军已经是世界上规模最大的海军，而且还在迅速扩大，同时在亚洲其他地区积极展示自己的存在。日本防卫大臣上个月表示，中国海军舰艇去年在琉球群岛周边海域航行事例共68起（琉球群岛位于九州和台湾之间），与2021年的21起相比大幅增加。

“They are gradually but very steadily spreading their wings, showing the world they’re able to be anywhere they want to be, whenever they choose,” said Rowan Moffitt, a former deputy chief of the Australian navy. “We see no reason to suggest intent to use their capability against us today. Should the intent change, they could.”

“他们正在逐渐但非常稳定地扩大影响力，向世界展示他们有能力在自己选择的任何时间去他们想去的任何地方，”澳大利亚海军前副司令罗文·莫菲特说。“我们看不出有任何理由认为他们今天会有意将其能力用于对付我们。但如果意图发生了改变，他们是有能力那样做。”

But for some, the Chinese flotilla was a reminder of the possibility of hostile powers reaching Australian shores.

但对一些人来说，中国舰队的出现提醒了人们敌对国家到达澳大利亚海岸的可能性。

“We’ve thought of conflict as something we choose to get involved in on the other side of the world,” said Jennifer Parker, a naval expert and two-decade veteran of the navy.

“我们一直认为，冲突是我们可以选择参与与否、发生在世界另一端的事情，”曾在海军服役20年的海军专家詹妮弗·帕克说。

Last year, Mr. Albanese’s government announced ambitious goals to expand and update Australia’s naval fleet, but the results aren’t expected to be seen until the 2030s, and some experts are skeptical that the local industry can deliver.

阿尔巴尼斯政府去年宣布了扩大和升级澳大利亚海军舰队的雄伟目标，但预计要到2030年代才能看到结果，一些专家对澳大利亚的工业能否完成这一任务持怀疑态度。

Australian warships have sailed near China, through the Taiwan Strait, and participated in joint exercises in the South China Sea. (And a Chinese defense ministry spokesman asked if Australia would notify Beijing of its own exercises near China.) But those are heavily trafficked corridors where multiple countries’ interests intersect, whereas the only reason to be south of Australia or in the Tasman Sea would be to send a message, said Ray Powell, the director of the maritime transparency project SeaLight, who previously served as a U.S. defense attaché in Canberra.

澳大利亚军舰曾在中国附近航行，穿越过台湾海峡，也参加过在南中国海举行的联合演习。（中国国防部发言人曾问澳大利亚是否会事先通知中国政府将在中国附近举行演习。）但中国附近的这些水域是繁忙的海上通道，多个国家在那里有利益交织，而派军舰前往澳大利亚以南的海域或塔斯曼海的唯一原因是传递信息，海事透明度计划SeaLight的负责人雷·鲍威尔说道，他曾担任美国驻堪培拉的国防武官。

“That particular message is, we are able to hold you at risk,” he said.

“那个信息就是，我们能够让你处于危险之中，”他说。