The US, UK and Australia have announced a new alliance named “AUKUS” to target China, and they even made a deal to provide nuclear submarines to Australia. Chinese military experts warned that such a move will potentially make Australia a target of a nuclear strike if a nuclear war breaks out even if Washington said it won’t arm Canberra with nuclear weapons, because it’s easy for the US to arm Australia with nuclear weapons and submarine-launched ballistic missiles when Australia has the submarines.
According to a White House statement released on Wednesday US time, US President Joe Biden announced the new alliance together with Australian Prime Minister Morrison and Prime Minister Johnson via video link.
However, Politico said “AUKUS” is Washington’s newest, hottest acronym — “an ugly mashup of abbreviations for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.”
The new alliance of three English-speaking Anglo-Saxon countries is not a surprise as they share closer strategic ties with one another than with other Western countries, and this is why France’s deal of submarines was canceled by Australia as Canberra can get the nuclear ones from Washington and London, said analysts, stressing that this alliance driven by the Cold War mentality and extreme hostility against China could seriously worsen the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region.
Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday that AUKUS is at the core of the US alliance system to contain China with extreme hostility, and it should not be underestimated. If Donald Trump or a Trump-like president returns to the White House one day, this alliance could bring unpredictable and catastrophic consequences.
“The US is using the same approach employed to contain Russia in Europe after the Cold War to contain China in the Asia-Pacific region. Washington is building a NATO-like alliance in the region, with AUKUS at the core, and the US-Japan and US-South Korea alliances surrounding it, and the Quad at the outermost level, because India, not an US ally, can’t be trusted by the US,” Li said.
These small groups of alliances can realize mutual reliance and form a big alliance led by the US to contain China. “So the threat and challenge that China is being confronted with are critical and serious. Russia can only realize effective communication with the West on its reasonable security concerns through intense conflicts. In the future, China should avoid a similar situation,” Li stressed.
Nuclear threat
The most shocking and dangerous message about AUKUS is the US and the UK will provide nuclear submarines to Australia. Morrison said at the virtual joint statement that “The first major initiative of AUKUS will be to deliver a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia. Over the next 18 months, we will work together to seek to determine the best way forward to achieve this. This will include an intense examination of what we need to do to exercise our nuclear stewardship responsibilities in Australia.”
Biden also said at the virtual joint press conference with Morrison and Johnson that “we are launching consultations with Australia’s acquisition of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines for its navy – conventionally armed.”
A senior Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times that at present, only nuclear-armed states have nuclear submarines, and a nuclear submarine is one tasked to launch a second-round nuclear strike in a nuclear war. So when Australia acquires such weaponry and technology, the country will potentially pose a nuclear threat to other countries, “because it’s easy for the US and the UK to deploy nuclear weapons and submarine-launched ballistic missiles on the Australian submarines if they believe it’s necessary, and Biden and Morrison’s promises of ‘not seeking nuclear weapons’ are meaningless.”
This would make Australia a potential target for a nuclear strike, because nuclear-armed states like China and Russia are directly facing the threat from Australia’s nuclear submarines which serve US strategic demands. Beijing and Moscow won’t treat Canberra as “an innocent non-nuclear power,” but “a US ally which could be armed with nuclear weapons anytime,” the expert said, stressing that AUKUS is putting Australia in danger, and Morrison’s ambition could bring destructive consequences to his country if a nuclear war breaks out.
Increasing worries
Some Australian strategists and politicians also share similar concerns. And New Zealand, another member of the Five Eyes Alliance, is also aware of the danger from the new AUKUS pact and wants to stay away from it, especially Australian nuclear submarines.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday that Australia’s new nuclear-powered submarines would not be allowed in New Zealand’s territorial waters under a long-standing nuclear-free policy, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Thursday.
Australian National University defense and strategic studies analyst Hugh White said the nuclear submarine deal “is a very big deal, indeed, full of risks and changes the way Australia approaches the region,” he told ABC radio on Thursday.
White said it would be seen as further proof that Australia had sided with the US in the face of a rising China. “It will further amplify the already very loud signals that are being sent that we are seeing a new Cold War in Asia,” he said.
AUKUS would serve American interests by giving a key ally stronger submarine capacity in the Pacific, he added.
“In the escalating rivalry between America and China, we’re siding with the United States and we’re betting they are going to win this one,” White said.
“But the fact is, that when we look 10 or 20 years ahead, I don’t think we can assume the United States is going to succeed in pushing back effectively against China,” White said.
The Sydney Morning Herald also said in a report on Thursday that prominent academics and former politicians like former Australian prime minister Paul Keating “have argued that Australia needs to assert more independence from America and avoid antagonizing China, its biggest trading partner. Such calls have been ignored: the AUKUS partnership confirms that Australia is going all the way with the US in what many have labeled a new ‘cold war’ with China.”
US President Joe Biden speaks about coronavirus protections in schools during a visit to Brookland Middle School in Washington, DC, September 10, 2021. Photo: AFP
