Australia mocks China’s ‘dumb’ criticism of nuclear submarines

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Australia’s frigid relationship with China led to a freeze on high-level diplomatic contacts

Sydney:

Australia on Friday openly mocked warnings from a top Chinese diplomat about plans to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, saying they were “so stupid it’s funny.”

Chinese Embassy charge d’affaires Wang Xining said Australia would become the “bad guy” if it procured the submarines, which are capable of carrying out stealth and long-duration missions.

Nuclear-powered submarines are designed to launch long-range attacks, Wang explained in an interview with The Guardian.

“So who are you going to attack? You are no longer a lover of peace, a defender of peace, you become a sword bearer in some form,” said Wang, who is the top representative of the China in Australia since the departure of the previous ambassador last month after a five-year term.

Wang said Australia had “zero nuclear capacity” to deal with any problem affecting the submarines and asked if politicians were prepared to apologize to the people if an incident occurred.

Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton scoffed at the “inflammatory” remarks, describing them in a TV interview as “provocative, sort of comical statements, really so stupid as it is funny.”

Dutton said the acting Chinese ambassador “is probably reading a Communist Party script, but I think most Australians see through the unproductive nature of the comments.”

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in September that he had decided to acquire the nuclear-powered ships as part of a new defense alliance with the United States and Britain.

Besides China’s wrath, the deal infuriated France, which at the last moment discovered that its own multi-billion dollar diesel-electric submarine contract with Australia had been canceled.

In his interview with The Guardian, Wang also warned Australian politicians not to do anything “destructive to the relationship”.

Dutton had said over the weekend that he could not conceive of a situation in which Australia would not support the United States in the event of an armed conflict with China for control of Taiwan.

An autonomous democracy of 23 million inhabitants, Taiwan is claimed by Beijing, which has sworn to take the island one day, by force if necessary.

Australia’s frigid relationship with China led to a freeze on high-level diplomatic contacts for nearly two years.

China has imposed tough sanctions on some Australian exports, a move seen in Canberra as retaliatory action for Australia to ban telecoms tech titan Huawei from closing key contracts and to question the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

There is no sign that either side is giving way.

Morrison this week unveiled a list of 63 “critical technologies” such as 5G communications to shield from interference from foreign players, including China.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)

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