China
China severely condemned the new security pact concluded Wednesday by Joe Biden with Australia and the United Kingdom, which "
seriously undermines regional peace and stability
" in a context of merciless rivalry with Washington.
This agreement called "Aukus" (Australia-UK-US) "
intensifies the arms race and undermines international nuclear non-proliferation efforts
," Chinese diplomacy spokesman Zhao Lijian said Thursday.
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Submarines: Biden torpedo the "contract of the century" between France and Australia, the lessons of an Indo-Pacific Trafalgar
The Communist regime sees in the new pact a "
small clique
" animated by an "
outdated mentality dating from the Cold War
".
This projection has become a leitmotif of Chinese diplomacy since the trade war launched by Donald Trump in 2018.
Beijing considers in particular "
extremely irresponsible
" the transfer of technology of submarines with atomic propulsion promised by Washington in Canberra and points out the "
double
talk
"
of America on the question of nuclear proliferation.
Europe cannot trust America and must exercise its strategic autonomy.
Commentator for the CGTN channel.
This agreement, unprecedented since the cooperation initiated in 1958 with the British Royal Navy in the face of the Soviet threat, should allow eight future Australian submersibles to conduct distant patrols, as far as the South China Sea or off Taiwan, areas claimed by Beijing.
By agreeing to share the sensitive know-how of nuclear propulsion, along with the sale of Tomahawk missiles, Joe Biden affirms America's long-term commitment to the Pacific front, reassuring his ally from the antipodes, himself to knives drawn with Beijing.
A message of determination to the other allies in Asia and a challenge to the red strategists who are betting on an inexorable decline of the world's leading power.
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Submarines: Australia cancels the "contract of the century" with France
The American offer is not without consideration and enlists Australia in the new containment strategy of the Pentagon, forcing it to a growing naval engagement vis-à-vis China, possibly in a future conflict, for the defense of Taiwan.
With 7,000 soldiers and nearly two million nationals in the region, France saw itself as the most credible European partner in the region.
The new pact ostensibly excludes him from the game, at the risk of cracking the transatlantic front a little more against Beijing.
Paris also lost a juicy contract which served as a showcase for the armaments industry in the direction of the governments of Southeast Asia.
The Chinese leaders see in the setbacks of France an opportunity to glance at the Old Continent.
The Anglo-Saxon pact shows "
that Europe cannot trust America and must exercise its strategic autonomy
" to develop "
its own relationship with China
", underlines a commentator from the CGTN channel.
See also
Cancellation of the "contract of the century": new diplomatic crisis between the United States and France
The climate of Sino-American mistrust was not dispelled by a rare telephone exchange between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden on September 9, after seven months of silence.
Enough to maintain the fear of a military slippage - so real that the American Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, had wished to reassure his Chinese counterpart by telephone, the day after Trump's electoral defeat, says the new Bob Woodward's book,
Peril
.
Next week, Biden will further weave his web around the Middle Kingdom by chairing a “Quad” summit, a format bringing together the Indian Narendra Modi and his Japanese and Australian counterparts.