China warns AUKUS allies on ‘path of error and danger’ with submarine pact

BEIJING agencies

China on Tuesday warned that Australia, Britain and the United States were treading a “path of error and danger” after they unveiled a nuclear-powered submarines deal.

Australia announced on Monday it would buy up to five US nuclear-powered submarines, then build a new model with US and British technology under an ambitious plan to bulk up Western muscle across the Asia-Pacific in the face of a rising China.

US President Joe Biden has stressed that Australia, which joined the alliance with Washington and London known as AUKUS 18 months ago, will not be getting nuclear weapons. However, acquiring submarines powered by nuclear reactors puts Australia in an elite club and at the forefront of US-led efforts to push back against Chinese military expansion.

Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, said: “The latest joint statement from the US, UK and Australia demonstrates that the three countries, for the sake of their own geopolitical interests, completely disregard the concerns of the international communities and are walking further and further down the path of error and danger”.

Wang accused the three Western allies of inciting an arms race, saying the security deal was “a typical case of Cold War mentality”. The sale of submarines “constitutes a severe nuclear proliferation risk, and violates the aims and objectives of the Non-Proliferation Treaty”, Wang said at a regular news conference in Beijing. china to prepare for the chal- lenge: Li Chijiang, vice president and secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told the Global Times in a previous interview that the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine program could in- volve the transfer of tons of weapons-grade nuclear material, enough to manufacture nearly 100 nuclear weapons, marking the first time since the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons came into force that nuclearweapon states will transfer a large amount of weapons-grade nuclear materials to a non-nuclear-weapon state. The AUKUS collaboration will damage the global strategic balance and stability, encourage other countries to join the nuclear arms race, escalate geopolitical tensions and bring the Asia-Pacific region to a wrong path of confrontation and splitting-up, completely opposite to the common appeal for development and prosperity from countries in the region, Li said. stability for decades: Monday’s announcement came at an event at a naval base in San Diego, California, where Biden hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

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