EDITORIAL

On September 15, 2021, the US, UK, and Australia announced a trilateral pact to “maintain peace” in the Indo-Pacific region named AUKUS. While no other country was mentioned explicitly, it can be inferred from current events in that region that the pact exists to counter China. The pact would provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. Unlike diesel-powered submarines, nuclear submarines don’t run out of fuel, can go at faster speeds, and can launch long-range attacks. The technological advantages of nuclear submarines in comparison to diesel submarines would supposedly make it easier for the US and its allies to maintain peace in the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific, but more importantly they serve to counter China as a rising military power. 

Accordingly, the pact was met with much condemnation from China, who called it “extremely irresponsible.” The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Ligan also said that the pact “seriously undermines regional peace and stability and intensifies the arms race.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise because in almost all cases such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the arms race between Germany and England leading up to WWI, and the nuclear arms race between the US and the USSR during the Cold War, has shown that stockpiling and developing even more weapons in the name of peace has only resulted in increased hostilities between the two parties, at times leading to actual wars--or in the case of the Cold War, several proxy wars in which the two powers never directly fought each other but funded groups who aligned with their interests. While nuclear submarines are not nuclear bombs, the uranium used to power submarines is enriched above weapons-grade at 93%. Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to about 90%. While the nuclear-powered submarines provided to Australia won’t carry any nuclear weapons, providing Australia with nuclear submarines still only accelerates the arms race and new Cold War with China. US tensions with China are already extremely tense. Providing Australia with nuclear submarines with highly enriched uranium will not help to establish peace in the South China Sea. China will see AUKUS and the new Australian nuclear submarines provided to them by the United States as a threat and will likely counter that with the development of far more lethal weapons. 

AUKUS is only one component of the new cold war with China. In the past few years, the US has accused China of being responsible for a variety of human rights abuses such as alleged genocides and cultural erasure, debt trapping countries in the global south, using films as a media for propaganda, and having a surveillance state. The US also had a trade war with China which proved devastating to American agriculture and industry. There’s also the fact that the US accused China of intentionally spreading Covid-19. While outright war with China is incredibly unlikely, because such a thing would be incredibly destructive on both sides, the US nonetheless sees China as a threat to US hegemony which must be countered. Military aggression is only one way that the US attempts to maintain control, other methods include economic warfare with the use of sanctions and tariffs, diplomatic isolation through the exclusion of a country from international agreements and trade deals, and psychological warfare using the media and playing on people’s emotions to convince them that a certain country who poses a threat to US hegemony is a threat to national security, democracy, human rights, etc. AUKUS is only one method among many to weaken China as a political and economic power and to further demonize China. 

That’s not to say that China is completely blameless. But, the US shouldn’t be attempting to escalate tensions with one of the world’s economic and military superpowers. China will inevitably pass the US in terms of GDP and economic growth. Instead of trying to weaken and demonize China, the US should attempt to establish more cordial relations with China. The US doesn’t have to agree with all of China’s policies but that doesn’t mean that they should attempt to destabilize or constantly demonize China. AUKUS is clearly not the solution to get China to be more compliant with US foreign policy agendas or for more cordial relations in general. AUKUS will only escalate tensions with China and lead to potentially more violent confrontations.