China has responded “irrationally” to the AUKUS pact between Australia, the US and Britain, Australian Minister of Defence Peter Dutton told Sky News Australia yesterday.
The conservative Australian minister continues to mount forthright criticism of the Chinese government, accusing it of “bullying” countries that stand up to Beijing.
The Australian government formed the AUKUS partnership with the US and the UK because it wanted to “see increased stability and peace in our region,” Dutton said.
“The response by China to that, I think, was irrational,” he added.
It was wrong to suggest that Australia was the one fueling an arms race in the region, “when we’re talking about acquiring eight nuclear-powered submarines at a time when China has 355 vessels in its [naval] fleet, going to 400 within the next nine years,” Dutton said.
“They are producing on a tonnage rate more naval assets every 18 months than what the Royal Australian Navy has in its entire fleet,” he added.
China has sought to portray the AUKUS deal as an “Anglo-Saxon clique” and a threat to the nuclear non-proliferation system.
Acting Chinese Ambassador to Australia Wang Xining (王晰寧) likened Australia to “a naughty guy,” saying that AUKUS would see it branded as a “saber wielder” rather than a “peace defender.”
However, the concerns are not confined to China, with the Australian government moving to allay Malaysia and Indonesia’s worries that the AUKUS deal could add to a regional arms race and pose nuclear non-proliferation issues.
Tensions with Beijing are set to increase, after Australia joined the US and the UK last week in announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in protest over human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the three countries would pay a price for their “mistaken acts” and “posturing.”
Asked yesterday about the threat, Dutton said that China issues such comments “regularly and not just against Australia.”
In the past few weeks, China also “threatened” Lithuania with trade actions, he said.
“We see it more and more regularly, and it’s unsettling and it’s unnecessary, to be honest,” he said.
Dutton — who has been accused of ramping up national security rhetoric for political purposes as a federal election looms — said that it was important to “be realistic” about how China’s outlook has “changed quite dramatically” under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) leadership.
The Australian government’s “problem is with the Chinese government, not with the Chinese people,” he said.
Australia has “an incredibly successful diaspora community” with more than 1 million people of Chinese origin “who have made an enormous contribution to our country,” he added.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese