‘Gum stuck to China’s shoe’: Will AUKUS place Australia in the crosshairs of a Chinese nuclear attack?

Since Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, the Chinese remarkable economic growth has come to the full attention of the US and the rest of the world, as have the risks that China’s expanding economy poses to the US falling economy.

While Trump’s containment policy had aimed to boost India’s military and economic dominance, the newly elected President Biden adopted a different approach. Putting India aside in its strategy, Biden’s administration has developed a more aggressive approach to restrain China’s growing power which involves arming Australia with nuclear submarines.

Today, China has significantly expanded its presence in Taiwanese airspace, and recent developments have heightened concerns that the conflict could spread to the Indo-Pacific islands, putting pressure on Canberra to join the fight against the Chinese dragon. As a result of the trilateral agreement, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom will expand their strategic defence cooperation, with London and Washington assisting Canberra in designing and constructing eight nuclear-powered attack submarines. AUKUS is a trilateral security pact concerning the Indo-Pacific region announced by Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States on September 15, 2021. The primary goal of this agreement is to counter China’s rising influence in East Asia and other areas of the globe, but some observers worry that doing so would make Australia a target of a possible nuclear war.

On the other hand, the conclusion of this agreement reveals the US’s hypocrisy as peaceful nations such as Iran, which enriches uranium only up to 60% for medical purposes and generating electricity, face economic terrorism from Washington. At the same time, Washington has decided to sell nuclear submarines to Australia, which consumes over 90% of nuclear fuel. Following the controversial AUKUS Pact, which drew worldwide criticism, particularly from Beijing, the United States is on the verge of an all-out siege of China as tensions between the two countries over Taiwan escalate. Apart from previous incidents, the recent collision of a US nuclear submarine with an unidentified object and US military training of the Taiwanese army have become the newest points of dispute with Beijing. While China’s state media has frequently referred to Australia as “gum stuck to China’s shoe,” US attempts to curb China’s rising strength are likely to lead to WWIII. The worst-case scenario is that a conventional fight devolves into a nuclear war, raising concerns that the US would intervene and arm Australia with atomic bombs.