Xinmin Global | “Being the drum of war”, what is Australia going to do?Fly into the homes of ordinary people
A few days ago, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom announced the establishment of the AUKUS trilateral security alliance, and the United States and Britain helped Australia develop nuclear submarines. Australia also announced the expansion of military cooperation with the United States, allowing all types of U.S. military aircraft to be deployed in rotation in Australia.
What exactly does Australia want to do?
The United States, Britain and Australia build a new “empire that the sun never sets”
On September 16, U.S. President Biden, British Prime Minister Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Morrison jointly held a video conference and announced that these three countries have established the Tri-Nation Alliance called AUKUS.
Unlike some small groups that the United States has entangled in the past, the establishment of AUKUS is not just an empty declaration of political opinions. The joint statement issued after the video conference of the three leaders stated that the United States, Britain and Australia will strengthen the sharing of information technology and promote the deep integration of security and defense technology, industrial bases, and supply chains. The statement specifically emphasized that it will “deepen cooperation in a range of security and defense capabilities.”
Guided by this thinking, the three countries immediately announced their first major initiative, namely, the United States and Britain provide Australia with nuclear technology and help the Royal Australian Navy build a fleet of no less than eight nuclear-powered submarines. In other words, if you want to do well, you must first have a weapon, and what AUKUS can’t wait to sharpen is Australia’s “teeth” to help Australia equip it with its weapons of war.
Caption: In May 2018, Macron (second from left) and then Prime Minister Turnbull (third from left) stood on the deck of the Australian Navy’s Corinth-class “Waller” submarine. Source: aljazeera
From the geographic distribution of the United States, Britain and Australia, we can see its unusualness. From the United States to the east, across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom, then from the United Kingdom across the Indian Ocean to Australia, and then from Australia across the Pacific Ocean back to the United States, forming a complete closed loop of the United States, Britain, and Australia.
From this path, it can be found that this has formed a new “empire that does not set the sun.” This was after the decline of the British Empire, the Anglo-Saxon civilization brought the whole world back into its political, economic, and military spheres of influence.
The three countries, Britain, the United States, and Australia, are completely consistent in their civilization foundations. The governance systems are basically the same in essence, and there are no contradictions in ideology, religious traditions, and so on. Although their respective economic strengths and importance are not balanced, they can complement and support each other.
It is especially important that these three countries also have their own circles of influence. Britain has the Commonwealth of former colonial countries as its traditional circle of friends; Australia has always used South Pacific island countries as its backyard and has been cultivating in Southeast Asia for many years; while the United States has a hegemonic position on a global scale, including allies and quasi-allies, as well as others. A small group established through political, economic and security influences. Therefore, although it is only three countries, its coverage is wide and its potential impact is far-reaching, and its strategic significance cannot be underestimated.
Australia One changes pure defensive strategic thinking
In history, Australia has long been on the safe side. It is far away from Britain and the European continent, the United States and Asia. This geographical isolation is called the “tyranny of distance” by historians. Australia is the only country in the world that occupies an entire continent. It is surrounded by the sea, and the sea has become its natural safety barrier. Because of this, Australia has never been invaded by a foreign country in a real sense in history. During World War II, Japan intended to encroach on this southern continent and bombed Darwin, the northernmost port of Australia, but it only stopped there.
In fact, the geographical isolation brings not only security to Australia, but also causes it to drift outside the world stage. It has been marginalized for a long time in the international political structure and has little strategic significance.
Australia has a population of only 25 million, a single economic form, and a small economy. Although it is surrounded by the Pacific and Indian Oceans and provides it with sufficient sea-going capabilities, its defense needs are mainly to protect homeland security, especially to prevent illegal immigrants from entering Australia from the sea. Therefore, the total strength of the national defense force is only about 50,000, and the current Collins-class conventionally powered submarines equipped by the navy are relatively old, but from the point of view of pure defense needs, they are enough.
Since Obama started the layout of the United States‘ return to the Asia-Pacific region, and Trump and Biden have successively promoted and implemented the “Indo-Pacific Strategy”, Australia’s strategic importance has risen rapidly.
Australia believes that the regional and global hegemony of the United States is an important guarantee for maintaining its ideology and political system. Therefore, in the United States’ regional strategy to contain and suppress China’s peaceful development, Australia actively cooperates and responds in an all-round way. In terms of military configuration, Australia has begun to change its purely defensive strategic thinking, and set out to build and deploy a military force with more long-range strike capabilities. One of its goals is to form a new submarine fleet of no less than 12 ships. In 2016, Australia and France signed a contract and decided to build a diesel-electric power “Barracuda-class” attack submarine for the French DCNS shipyard.
As the United States continues to strengthen its containment and anti-China efforts, the Asia-Pacific region has become a hot spot for its containment and attack on China. Since mid-2017, Australia has become more proactive and active in its anti-China vanguard role.
From speculating on the “Five Eyes Alliance”, to resurrecting the “U.S., Japan, India and Australia four-sided dialogue mechanism”, to the establishment of the AUKUS trilateral alliance of the United States, Britain and Australia, Australia has always appeared on the front line of the US and Western anti-China strategies.
Some Australian strategic analysts pointed out that the diesel-electric submarines built in France have short endurance, short submarine time, and noise problems. They pointed out without concealing that such a submarine wants to pass through the Vietnam Sea and reach the vicinity of Taiwan, China, and it is difficult not to be discovered by the Chinese. Therefore, it is necessary to switch to nuclear-powered submarines with theoretically unlimited submarine time and stronger stealth capabilities to deliver strike capabilities over long distances.
Caption: Morrison (left) and Macron. Source: GJ
In April of this year, the Deputy Minister of Land Affairs of Australia, Pezuluo, outrageously claimed that “the drums of war are ringing” and that Australia will be ready to “send our warriors” at any time in the event of a military conflict between China and the United States in the Taiwan Strait.
Canberra’s war intentions are not just verbal clamors. In fact, Australia has already begun to cooperate with the United States to manufacture and deploy guided weapons in Australia. The Australian Defense Minister Dutton also publicly stated that it intends to “expand” the 2,000 US Marines stationed in Australia, and will also fully open the Australian seaport to US naval vessels. In addition, Australia will build a dedicated military fuel depot for the United States in Darwin Port.
Immature diplomacy, Australia frequently abandons treaties
Australia has categorically torn up a submarine order worth 60 billion US dollars from France, and transferred to the United States and Britain to provide nuclear technology and build nuclear-powered submarines. It is also part of the Canberra authorities’ “environmental circle” of China. Although this submarine is not a nuclear attack submarine, it will be equipped with a Tomahawk cruise missile. Its purpose is to ensure that the submarine can pass through the South China Sea with many islands and reefs and the complex terrain under the sea, bringing the range of submarine launching closer to China.
In fact, we must see that whether the submarine fleet Australia is forming is made in France or is supported by US technology, its fundamental purpose is to cooperate with the US anti-China strategy and strengthen preparations for military conflict with China.
Australia is a non-nuclear country and does not even have nuclear power plants, let alone nuclear weapons. The construction of nuclear-powered submarines is itself a blatant challenge to the “Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
At the same time, after having a fleet of attacking nuclear submarines with China as an imaginary enemy, Australia has naturally become a target of China’s defense and counterattacks. Unprovoked challenges and provokes China, Australia is stepping into a dangerous situation step by step.
The Morrison government took such high-profile risks, behind it its political motives and partisan self-interest. Before the end of May next year, Australia must conduct federal parliamentary elections. Since the beginning of this year, variants of the Delta virus have raged across Australia. From the very beginning, the Morrison government misjudged the vaccine procurement situation and the progress of vaccination, and underestimated the number of confirmed cases. The number of confirmed cases has hit record highs. All states in Australia have repeatedly locked cities and land, and the economy has been severely impacted. Cities such as Sydney and Melbourne have been severely impacted. Mass protests occurred this time. In many consecutive polls, the ruling Liberal Party-National Party Alliance and Morrison’s approval ratings plummeted, while the opposition Labor Party took the opportunity to criticize its lack of policy and showed a trend of overtaking.
The Morrison administration hyped up the China threat theory and formed a new alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States. One of its main purposes was to divert the attention of the domestic people, to demonize China, to create panic among the voters, and to try to shape itself into a strong force. The image of a powerful government.
Australians still have a strong sense of home and country for their home country, the United Kingdom. In recent decades, the Australian Republican movement has encountered setbacks in its attempts to secede from the Commonwealth. At the same time, Australians are full of admiration for the United States. The establishment of the Three-Power Alliance is a “fuse” to the ultra-nationalism hidden in Australia’s multiculturalism, which also echoes the white supremacy that has emerged in Australia since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic.
In response to the French government’s attack on Australia for treachery, Morrison said that he has no regrets about the decision to break the contract. From tearing up the “Belt and Road” cooperation agreement with China, to planning to terminate the 99-year lease of Darwin Port by the Chinese company Landbridge Group on the grounds of so-called “national security”, to tearing its face with France, the Canberra authorities have repeatedly abandoned the agreement. The behavior reflects its lack of mature diplomatic capabilities, and it is losing respect and trust in the international community.
On September 21, Morrison arrived in the United States for one-on-one talks with Biden, and then attended the four-nation summit meeting of the United States, Japan, India and Australia at the White House. The United States is weaving an anti-China global spider web step by step, and Australia is becoming one of the most aggressive and arrogant spiders.
Chen Hong, President of the Australian Studies Association of China, Director of the Australian Studies Center of East China Normal University
Editor: Wang Ruoxian
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