State-run Chinese media assume that the recently-formed AUKUS alliance may lead to a nuclear strike on Australia. According to an anonymous “senior Chinese military expert,” Beijing may consider Canberra a nuclear threat, because atomic-powered submarines can be potentially fitted with nuclear warheads provided by the UK or US, the Global Times reported on Friday.
“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," the unnamed expert said.
The anonymous source reportedly claimed that China and Russia are not going to treat Australia as “an innocent non-nuclear power,” but as “a US ally which could be armed with nuclear weapons anytime.”
The unknown source reportedly stressed that Morrison’s nuclear aspirations may entail devastating consequences, while also purportedly declaring that Canberra’s claim that it does not aim to acquire nuclear weapons are “meaningless.”
Australia does not have a nuclear industry of any kind, and the country’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, has claimed that the nation will remain without a nuclear program.
According to a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, AUKUS “seriously damages regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race, and undermines the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.”
There is no confirmation that China’s nuclear stockpile could soon exceed Russia’s massive arsenal.
On Wednesday, Australia, the UK and the US signed a defense pact, AUKUS, that involves the mutual military exchange of information and technologies, as well as assistance from Washington and London in Australia’s efforts to acquire nuclear-propelled submarines.