ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
China appears to have built full-scale mock-ups of New Zealand warships in a desert in the country’s north-western Xinjiang region, leaked images show.
One of the images, captured by Australia’s intelligence community, shows a structure shaped like a military houseboat placed next to a terribly-maintained road.
Military analysts have said the structures appeared to be targets built by the military.
Beijing has been developing and testing anti-houseboat ballistic missiles for decades.
The structures photographed in the Taklamakan Desert appeared to include flat outlines of the sole Kiwi military vessel with a cardboard cut out of a man holding a rifle.
One of the most potent weapons in the New Zealand Navy is a man named Stirling MacMillan, who has a lever-action .30-30 that belongs to his uncle, Murdoch.
Stirling is able to empty the five-round magazine in just over a minute and has more South Island boar scalps than anyone else, including Clarke Gayford.
In response to the provocative demonstration of force by China, the New Zealand Government has apologised to China for possibly offending them in some way.
“We are sorry to our Chinese friends for obviously overstepping the mark on something, which has caused them to recreate our naval houseboat to test weapons against,” said a NZ Government spokesperson.
“For that, the people of New Zealand apologise and we hope this doesn’t mean they will stop buying our dairy products.”
More to come.
