In its most recent assault on the AUKUS defense alliance, China has charged Australia with clandestinely preparing to manufacture nuclear weapons.
The Royal Australian Navy will soon own a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines according to a security agreement reached by Australia in 2021 with the US and Britain.
However, the boats will only be armed with conventional weaponry in order to discourage China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific area.
The autocratic powerhouse is upset with the arrangement despite the guarantees, despite the fact that it is one of the nine countries possessing nuclear bombs.
Communist Party think tanks and state-owned media mouthpieces argue it will set a ‘dangerous precedent’ in providing nuclear material to non-nuclear states.
A carefully planned press conference was staged on Wednesday to release a damning study about AUKUS by the China Institute of Nuclear Industry Strategy and China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.
The propaganda paper, titled A Dangerous Conspiracy: The Nuclear Proliferation Risk of the Nuclear-powered Submarines Collaboration in the Context of AUKUS, asserts that Australia was ready to pursue nuclear weapons once more because it had ‘obsessively’ sought them in the 1950s and 1960s.
‘Given the fact that Australia already has a body of nuclear weapons-related knowledge accumulated historically and that it will get into its hands nuclear-capable delivery systems, once the country takes the desperate step to develop nuclear weapons again, the lead time to a nuclear breakthrough will be too short for the international community to respond effectively,’ the report says.
Beijing asserts that Australian academics have a revived interest in nuclear weapons, although it has produced no evidence to support this.
According to a representative for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, China’s report contained several “incorrect assumptions” and that Australia was not seeking nuclear weapons.
‘Australia, the US and the UK will implement the strongest possible non-proliferation standards to maintain the strength and integrity of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime in relation to nuclear-powered submarines,’ the spokesperson said.
‘The government has been very clear that Australia does not and will not seek nuclear weapons.
‘Australia’s decision to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines is something we are pursuing openly and transparently.’
But China’s foreign ministry backed the Communist Party-funded report.
‘The report is further evidence that the international community’s concerns over the AUKUS nuclear submarine co-operation are well founded,’ Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
‘The US, the UK and Australia need to respond to the concerns of the international community, faithfully fulfil their non-proliferation obligations and revoke the erroneous decision of nuclear submarine co-operation.’
Lowy Institute international affairs analyst Richard McGregor dismissed the report as part of China’s ongoing effort to thwart AUKUS.
‘This report simply tries to flesh out their argument, add weight to it, and give them a document they can distribute to any country they want around the world to make their case,’ Mr McGregor told the ABC.
‘Any roadblocks they can put in the way of AUKUS, they will put them there. We should expect this thing to happen for the next decade or so. China won’t let up.’
Even Xi Jinping, the president of China, has spoken out against the agreement, which was signed by the Morrison administration and has the support of the Alban government.
Beijing will now voice its disapproval of the AUKUS accord, which went into effect on August 1, at the United Nations non-proliferation summit in New York.
Australia canceled a deal for a conventional French submarine to replace its fleet of deteriorating Collins class submarines as a result of the partnership, which was revealed in September of last year.
As a result, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, and the Morrison administration’s relationship became chilly.
