Australia’s shock nuclear sub program & AUKUS represent alarming escalation of tension with China
US, UK, Australia Announce New Military Pact to Counter China
President Biden and the leaders of Australia and the UK announced a new military agreement on Wednesday aimed at countering China. The pact, known as AUKUS, will focus on the sharing of sensitive military technologies, and the first initiative will focus on getting Australia nuclear-powered submarines.
US officials speaking to CNN described the effort to share nuclear propulsion with another country as an “exceedingly rare step” due to the sensitivity of the technology. “This technology is extremely sensitive. This is, frankly, an exception to our policy in many respects,” one unnamed official said.
Australia is not a nuclear-armed state, and the submarines are not expected to carry nuclear arms. In a joint statement, the three countries said they were committed to “non-proliferation,” but that is not exactly true. Earlier this year, the British announced that they are increasing their nuclear stockpile and setting their cap of nuclear warheads to 260, up from the current limit of 180.
Strengthening cooperation with allies in the Pacific is a key part of the Biden administration’s anti-China strategy, and Canberra is eager to play along. Australia is also a member of the Quad, a security dialogue that also includes the US, Japan, and India, which is seen as a foundation for a possible NATO-style alliance in Asia. Biden will host the first in-person summit between Quad leaders later this month.
A Biden administration official claimed AUKUS is “not aimed at any one country,” but the rhetoric makes it clear the effort is aimed at China. The three countries said they share a commitment to the so-called “international rules-based order,” a common phrase used by Biden officials to describe the US-led world order that they see Beijing as a threat to.
Australia’s defense minister met with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Washington on Tuesday. Discussing the meeting, Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said the US shares Australia’s concerns over the “aggressive behavior, the coercive and intimidating activities that the Chinese are making throughout the region.” Kirby reiterated that China is currently the Pentagon’s primary focus.
Wow, that escalated quickly!
I don’t think we have seen a threat as dramatic as this to the geopolitical stability of the Pacific since World War 2.
Australia has dumped a $90billion dollar deal for a dozen conventional hunter killer subs from France for nuclear subs from America and the UK.
Now there is only one reason you get a nuclear sub and that is as a platform for either first strike capability or nuclear deterrence. Australia has already ruled out nuclear weapons because they couldn’t survive the political backlash at home or in the Pacific by obtaining them but if you look at all the adjacent technical and technology sharing AUKUS represents in AI and engineering it seems clear that AUKUS intends to be a hyper sonic weapon delivery system for these nuclear subs.
Hypersonic missile delivery platforms sitting off the coast of China represents a first strike capacity that would strategically upend China’s desires in the South China Sea.
Australia is committing to this kind of alarming escalation against its largest trading partner because America has made it clear that they will turn on Australia if they don’t!
The very excellent Caitlin Johnstone points this out devastatingly…
If readers are curious why Australia would simultaneously subvert its own economic interests by turning against its primary trading partner and its own security interests by feeding into dangerous and unnecessary provocations, I will refer them once again to the jarringly honest explanation by American political analyst John Mearsheimer at a debate hosted by the Australian think tank Center for Independent Studies in 2019. Mearsheimer told his audience that the US is going to do everything it can to halt China’s rise and prevent it from becoming the regional hegemon in the East, and that Australia should align with the US in that battle or else it would face the wrath of Washington.
I really like the nervous laughter 😬from Australian audience when John Mearsheimer told them if they choose to b friendly w China, US will show them how nasty it can be…pic.twitter.com/NFZSCIucAZ
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) October 8, 2020
“The question that’s on the table is what should Australia’s foreign policy be in light of the rise of China,” Mearsheimer said. “I’ll tell you what I would suggest if I were an Australian.”
Mearsheimer claimed that China is going to continue to grow economically and will convert this economic power into military power to dominate Asia “the way the US dominates the Western Hemisphere”, and explained why he thinks the US and its allies have every ability to prevent that from happening.
“Now the question is what does this all mean for Australia?” Mearsheimer said. “Well, you’re in a quandary for sure. Everybody knows what the quandary is. And by the way you’re not the only country in East Asia that’s in this quandary. You trade a lot with China, and that trade is very important for your prosperity, no question about that. Security-wise you really want to go with us. It makes just a lot more sense, right? And you understand that security is more important than prosperity, because if you don’t survive, you’re not gonna prosper.”
“Now some people say there’s an alternative: you can go with China,” said Mearsheimer. “Right you have a choice here: you can go with China rather the United States. There’s two things I’ll say about that. Number one, if you go with China you want to understand you are our enemy. You are then deciding to become an enemy of the United States. Because again, we’re talking about an intense security competition.”
“You’re either with us or against us,” he continued. “And if you’re trading extensively with China, and you’re friendly with China, you’re undermining the United States in this security competition. You’re feeding the beast, from our perspective. And that is not going to make us happy. And when we are not happy you do not want to underestimate how nasty we can be. Just ask Fidel Castro.”
Nervous laughter from the Australian think tank audience punctuated Mearsheimer’s more incendiary observations. The CIA is known to have made numerous attempts to assassinate Castro.
So there you have it. Australia is not aligned with the US to protect itself from China. Australia is aligned with the US to protect itself from the US.
…National have bitched about NZ not getting crumbs off the table in side contracts but we don’t have the capacity to aid in hypersonic weaponry and we wouldn’t want to be that beholden to US aggression.
We are already a military target thanks to Rocket Labs!
Rocket Lab fires rockets into space for the secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) this is their charming patch…
…nothing erodes faith in the check and balance of extreme power quite like a giant orange space octopus proclaiming that nothing is out of its reach. Unbeknownst to most NZers, Rocket Lab is a Military Industrial Complex franchise, not some plucky Number 8 Wire Dad Shed schlock that Rocket Lab like to project to the sleepy hobbits of Muddle Nu Zilind…
Rocket Lab’s link with the CIA’s venture capital firm was revealed in 2016 by US investigative journalism site The Intercept, but has not been reported by the New Zealand media.
Although it operates independently, In-Q-Tel invests on behalf of the CIA and the broader US intelligence community in companies whose products may have national security applications.
A document obtained by The Intercept shows that Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck spoke at a summit of In-Q-Tel portfolio companies in February 2016. Other speakers included then-FBI director James Comey. Beck earlier wrote about Rocket Lab for In-Q-Tel’s quarterly publication in 2015.
In contrast, Lockheed Martin’s investment in Rocket Lab is mentioned routinely in press coverage and was the subject of a jibe by departing Vector chairman Michael Stiassny to the Vector AGM last week.
However, the extent of Rocket Lab’s defence industry work has gone essentially unremarked. Details of this work had been removed from Rocket Lab’s website by the time the regulatory regime enabling the company’s activities in New Zealand came into law last year.
Put aside the zero public debate of whether or not we should get this close to the American Military Industrial Complex in the first place and note that no one ever explained to the NZ public how allowing Rocket Labs to launch US military satellites immediately upgrades NZ to being a legitimate military target!
Because of this, Chinese Subs and Russian Subs will legitimately sit off the East Coast of NZ targeting the launch site.
THIS is why we needed to buy 4 P-8s! Because America is able to launch military satellites from NZ, which makes us a target and we need to defend that target with sub hunting planes!
New sub-killer planes may never fire in anger but Govt wants the option
Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced the Government will buy four Boeing P-8A Poseidons to replace the defence force’s ageing fleet of P-3K Orions. The purchase has been a longtime coming.
The P-8s, known as submarine killers, mark a new era in defence procurement, with one expert calling this the most significant defence purchase in a generation.
…so under National, we signed up to a military space programme through our 5 Eyes network that has now made us a legitimate military target which we need to buy sub hunting planes and torpedoes for???
When will it be made clear to the rest of the electorate that we have done this and put everyones lives at risk by Rocket Lab making us a legitimate military target?
So when National bitch about NZ not being included in AUKUS tell them to shut up because they’ve already put us in harms way enough as it is!
We need an independent foreign policy now more than ever!
When historians look back and attempt to define the moment the Cold War in the Pacific went hot, it will be AUKUS they point to.
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We have abandoned our allies to kow tow to our master who feeds our rich its crumbs. It won’t be long now before China has its subs parked in our waters. We sold our soles for financial gain.
100%
It would be an illegal act, so it would only occur if we could not detect it.
We have and will continue to have the capacity to detect it.
China threatens Australia, puts up illegal trade barriers, breaks its international agreement on Hong Kong, seizes the South China Sea against International law, skirmishes with India, absorbs Tibet, begins absorbing Nepal, Cambodia, increases its nuclear Arsenal and is massively increasing and modernizing all branches of its military.
And the Aussies getting nuclear subs is the alarming escalation?
Yes this is big news, Australia is 10 years behind the build up in deterrence they need. Nuclear weapons or sharing them are a small step from this and a big deterrent should the Aussies choose to at some point, and good on them if they do.
NZ foreign policy is pathetic and a sop to China while benefiting from a US policed international rules based order the Chinese seek to destroy.
Spot on . . China is the Nazi Germany of our time and so far all NZ has ever done is turn a blind eye in the hope that (the 1%)? get some scraps from the CCP table.
We have chosen to abandon our traditional allies and always in the belief that if we needed them they would be there for us.
So,…. what are the conditions that ”they are there for us?”…. seems pretty bully boy according to John Mearsheimer, – and I’ve heard more threatening talk from the local bully boy who I made their teeth bleed, to be honest…
And what exactly is he going to do to us in his dreams?
And you think the Chinese will do any better?
What was that about Vietnam and Afghanistan lately? – who lost those wars again? Please remind me.
You think we are some sort of spineless soft cocks needing to suck on the tit of totalitarian / imperialism to draw our next breath?
I assure you, a foreign invading army may take some of our city’s, but as soon as they step foot into our countryside’s and our hills and our forests, they are food for the pigs and the rats.
corrected your last sentence to reflect reality ,,,, ‘US policed US rules , which are often illegal under International rules and laws.’…
…. ie the usa’s extensive use of economic warfare / siege / sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Syria, Yemen etc etc.
Apart from refusing to be bound by the International Criminal Court, which rules on crimes like breaches of the Geneva Convention ,,,
,, The Usa has also excused itself from it’s own domestic laws covering things like Murder ,,, when it comes to their foreign policy and their international actions.
As long as they call it “National Security”
Case in point, the immunity from prosecution for the murderer Kissenger https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-10-22/cia-chile-anatomy-assassination ; …. a “wrongful death” lawsuit filed in September 2001 by the Schneider family against Kissinger for his role in the assassination. ….. General Schneider was targeted for his defense of Chile’s constitutional transfer of power. …………. as the commander-in-chief of the Chilean army and the highest-ranking military officer in Chile, Schneider’s policy of non-intervention created a major obstacle for CIA efforts to implement President Nixon’s orders to foment a coup that would prevent the recently elected Socialist, Salvador Allende, from being inaugurated. ”
“the courts dismissed the case because Kissinger’s official acts as national security advisor to the president were protected from legal liability.”
No “legal Liability” means not bound by any laws or rules ….. Legal to be Illegal
Land of the free indeed … free to murder.
Write that in your rule book and underline it..
Exceptional people ,,, Usa Uber Alles ,,, above everything.
I think that those people using their free speech (and they are all too happy to take away other people’s) other people have died for, in a western democracy protected largely by the United States, to attack the US, is naive, ungrateful and frankly, cowardly.
It’s a microcosm of NZ foreign policy under this government though isn’t it.
Wow you really bought into that myth hook line and sinker
Once those nuclear capacity subs have been ‘gifted’ to Australia, only a fool would naively say the the payloads are not stored on the mainland or onboard,… and only a fool would say that one of those conditions if anyone asks is the mandatory ” we can neither confirm or deny” to shut any dissenters up.
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…”We need an independent foreign policy now more than ever!”…
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And I would say we also need to become an aggressive production and trading partner to many, many nations , – including Russia and West Europe.
This country has barely tapped into its enormous fisheries potential nor the IT componentry production potential that could provide jobs and wealth around the country, and so many , many other productions…instead we sold off our primary industry’s like Kinlieth’s state forest to the Japanese at low prices so that we ship logs to Japan and they make value added wood products which they then ship back to us at marked up prices… DUH.
Thanks, you neo liberal grifter clowns.
We need to think and act more like Switzerland and become a neutral country, I wont mention all the dirty money and gold they take care of, however it is time we developed our own licks, revamped our Armed Services for a purely defensive role, and stopped acting like a bunch of ignorant cave dwelling knuckle draggers and get with the program. No ones going to take care of us except us.
And the best we can do,… is do the best we can to not be part of the big bang experience when the big boys toys finally go off.
Re being neutral Switzerland has managed to achieve this only due to the massive amounts that it has always spend on defence and defence instrastructure / conscription and you only have to look at Tibet to see how China treats countries that are either too weak or unwilling to defend themselves.
Yep, but the difference is we are not landlocked, and as for spending on defense, this country’s neo liberal govts have successively downgraded our Armed Services.
Oh, and one other thing?… when I was young I didn’t like the idea of compulsory military training, I felt like it cramped my wild young lifestyle. Heavy metal guitarist in a band etc…
Listening to the older guys at work while I was in my twenties reminded me of listening to nostalgic old farts. Many of who went through CMT in the 1950’s and 60’s. Some of whom served in Vietnam and later on in Malaysia. Well,…I have done a complete reversal, … they say you start off radical and go conservative as you age,…
And one of the things a few said was there was no racism in a foxhole ( the Maori ex serviceman who went to Vietnam three times quoted that to me,- Charlie, transport sergeant, – who had the most wicked dry sense of humour ! ) and that its a good thing that the rich kid from Remuera serves and trains alongside of the poor kid from South Auckland.
Those guys are old now, quite a few of them no longer with us. And I miss their grounding, no nonsense common sense world views. Thiers was very much an egalitarian world view.
Personally now, I can see no wrong with a short stint in basic training so that if ever there was a problem, our men and women would know what to do.
I completely agree but that NZ has passed . . the Remuera kids parents will make sure he (or she) is exempted and the kid from South Auckland would similarly not have to serve in an army that represents their ‘colonial oppressors’.
B.S
In times of war, all are called on and the current PC B.S is dispensed with.
Like +100%
Rocket Man
https://youtu.be/DtVBCG6ThDk?t=3
It will be interesting to see how the Australian public react to this news.
“As far as slaps across the face go, they don’t come much bigger than this. And the giant backhander Australia just delivered France and its President, Emmanuel Macron, is bound to be repaid in kind.
Just as Prime Minister Scott Morrison can point to legitimate reasons for axing a $90 billion contract for the French to help build Australia’s new submarine fleet, Macron has more than reasonable grounds to feel angry and deceived.
To say the French are seething over the surprise new defence pact between Australia, the United States and United Kingdom would be an understatement. Overnight, Paris has gone from viewing Australia as a friend and ally to a nation which can’t be trusted.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/emmanuel-macron-has-good-reason-to-feel-angry-and-deceived-by-australia-20210916-p58s0z.html
If we are lucky, France will save the Americans from themselves.
If France leads the EU out of NATO in reaction to the latest Anglo-American betrayal, they can heal the breach with Russia (which is caused by NATO remaining after the end of the Warsaw Pact and emergence of independence in Eastern Europe). Co-opting Germany should be easy (they had/have no intention of spending 2% GDP on defence – the so called expectation of this by 2024 just set a date for the end of NATO).
The USA was never going to prevail against both Russia and China – both emboldened by the total failure of US policy in the ME since 2001.
The most useful way, and least confrontational, of containing China is to end the impasse with Russia.
Back in the day the US ended the isolation of China and then successfully squeezed Russia, just applying it in reverse this time might suffice. China would soon reduce its ambitions back to tier 1 from tier 3 in such a global environment.
Australia approached the USA about nuclear tech, not the other way around :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-16/australia-us-uk-nuclear-option-china-morrison-biden/100466150
Wow. Those three aren’t the ones. Those three just make me want to look away in shame. Is it really those three pulling the strings though?
“we should expect more divestment from Australia as they focus on relationships with stronger players”
Good. Take Countdown, GJG Gardiners and Harvey Normans for a start. Then lock the door.
You missed the parasitic bankers GreenBus. That would be the divestment that would be most beneficial to New Zealand.
Agree 100%.
The rhetoric after the last G7 especially from Joe Biden was laced with a cold war poison.
The economic threat to US hegemony makes China the enemy.
The military industrial complex benefited handsomely from the Afghanistan tragedy and Washington has merely pointed the “machine” in another direction.
Psychopaths rule.
Yep so true
FAUKUS
This could potentially faukus
Very happy to sit outside AUKUS alongside Canada on this one.
+1 For https://caitlinjohnstone.com she has an incredibly lucid view of what’s really going on in the big picture
Nope. Australia had to start there own race because New Zealand’s space race left the Australians behind .
The part that is hated most beautiful d that New Zealand needs Australia now more than ever.
And we’re going to have to give the RAN an exemption to our no nukes policy and our docks and repair facilities a free E going to need upgrades to reflect our evolving relationship.
For Australia to have allowed itself to be conned into a situation where it’s made an enemy of its biggest trading partner perhaps a more appropriate acronym would be USUKA