Aukus Tiptoes Against China In Its Trade Conflict With Australia

AUKUS tiptoes against China in its trade conflict with Australia

New Delhi/Canberra on Dec 8, 2008 : .China’s participation in AUKUS, a trilateral security agreement between Australia, the US, and the UK in the Indo-Pacific region has hurt its goal of bringing Australia down by launching a severe trade war and tariff war against them.
China launched a trade war and tariff war against Australia in 2019 after being dissatisfied by Australia’s request for an independent inquiry into the Coronavirus’ origins.It placed restrictions and tariffs against several Australian exports, including wine, sugar, and coal.

 Aukus Tiptoes Against China In Its Trade Conflict With Australia-TeluguStop.com

These ties, which were warm until 2014, have since been frozen.Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Australia in 2014 to establish a permanent friendship and signed a bilateral free trade accord a year later.

They became so close that the Australian state of Victoria signed a memorandum for the Belt and Road Initiative with China.

Things began to go sour between the two countries due to Australia’s concerns about China’s conscious expansion of its political influence in Canberra.

As relations between the US and China deteriorated, Australia found it increasingly difficult to maintain balance between its ties with both countries.Australia banned ZTE and Huawei, two Chinese telecom giants, from building its 5G network.

Australia demanded a virus probe against China in the following year.This was the end.

China used its economic power to launch an open trade war with Australia.Australia was subject to anti-dumping and counter-subsidy duties.

Unbelievable reasons were given for the sanctioning of Australian exports.Imports from this country of fish products were delayed in customs which led to losses.

Although Australia survived the storm, it did sometimes fall prey to the forces of nature.For example, the case with Australian wine.China imposed tariffs up to 212 percent.This smashed domestic distributors in Australia and Australia’s share of the global wine import market plummeted from 40% to 6% in 2020.

Australia seemed to be able to weather the worst by trading new products and finding new markets for exports at the beginning of the year.It redirected its coal exports instead to India.

Instead of China, Saudi Arabia became the largest importer of Australian barley.

The AUKUS security agreement, announced in September, has caused further damage to Australia-China relations.

Beijing views the pact both as an insult and as a deliberate attempt to contain it.China was furious at the US-UK security pact, which stipulated that the UK and the US will share advanced nuclear submarine technology with Australia, as well as information about long-range strike capabilities, artificial Intelligence, and underwater systems.

While Australia saw the pact a “strategic win”, the Chinese expressed concern that it would lead to nuclear proliferation within non-nuclear countries (like Australia) as well as destabilizing security in the Indo-Pacific.China holds the greatest political stakes in this area.

Experts are currently assessing which side between Australia and China is more affected by the AUKUS agreement and the trade war.The truth is that although the trade war severely affected Australia, it didn’t force the country into a softening approach to China.AUKUS pact, which officially supports Australia, opens up a new front for confrontation.

China continues to spout venom at AUKUS, claiming it will “induce another round of arms races” and “undermine regional security” by sabotaging the prospects for a “nuclear-free area in South-East Asia”.These are definitely talking points.However, they don’t take into account China’s provocations and belligerence toward its South China Sea neighbours and its role in escalating tensions within the region due to its military and naval buildup.

China’s threat perception of AUKUS is real.The fear of a US-led western alliance against China is now a distant reality.

Worse, China’s bete noire Japan endorsed the trilateral agreement and Australia is a party to it.China believes that AUKUS is an attempt by the US to limit its rise in its region of influence, and that Australia has been roped in as a key anchor in its Indo-Pacific strategy.

China tried to raise the issue of nuclear proliferation.However, the argument is falling apart in the face of the facts.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons does not prohibit the use of nuclear material for military purposes that are non-explosive.Australia is not a signatory of the Treaty of Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, (Bangkok Treaty).Thirdly, the South Pacific Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty(Rarotonga Treaty), “doesn’t place any restrictions on nuclear-powered ships.” China, for example, has its own nuclear attack submarine fleet in this region.

Recognizing this, Beijing has switched its criticism from nuclear proliferation towards Australia’s “exploiting loopholes and playing dirty” and “tramples on the spirit of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”.This is merely rhetoric, as the nuclear submarines are unlikely to enter the Australian navy prior 2040.

China is concerned that AUKUS’s inclusion of Tomahawk-type cruise-missiles in its fleet will give the west an advantage in geo-strategic competition with China.

The real problem with the AUKUS agreement is China’s inability to see through the rhetoric.

It has to do the west including Japan in its attempt to contain China, even without having Tokyo officially join the pact.SupChina, a New York-based news, information and business services platform that focuses on China, reported: “With Japan at one end and India at the other,” Australia’s nuclear submarines would allow the Allies close a “strategic triangular at the southernmost point of the second island chain.This will reduce the distance for reconnaissance and monitoring as well as provide a faster response against China.It will also enable the Allies to achieve long-range hypersonic precision strikes capabilities.

The Chinese are concerned that Australia will set a dangerous precedent as the first non-nuclear weapons state to have nuclear propulsion technology.However, they seem to forget their role in tipping the regional nuclear balance.

This includes its continued rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal, its recent test of nuclear capable hypersonic missiles and President Xi’s April celebration of a nuclear submarine “to manage South China Sea”.

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