Talk of war with China has been mounting over recent years. The current Labor government, and the Coalition before it, have been warning that Beijing has become increasingly aggressive, which is leading to growing tensions in the Indo Pacific that must be countered.
This is not the first time the Australian public has been primed for a potential conflict. At this time twenty years ago, there was rising talk about the threat that Iraq posed due to the weapons of mass destruction it supposedly possessed. And this led to the invasion in March 2003.
Now opposition leader Peter Dutton took a prominent hawkish stance on China in the last years of the Morrison administration. And while the Albanese government has taken a more tactful approach with foreign minister Penny Wong in the lead, war with China continues to be on the agenda.
Indeed, as with most other wars the nation has been embroiled in since World War Two, Australia hasn’t been directly threatened by China, rather it’s blindly following Washington’s lead on the matter, in a conflict that will serve the interests of our US ally.
Unimpeded access
AUKUS is part of the build up to war with China. Unveiled by then PM Scott Morrison in September 2021, the pact is an agreement between Australia, the UK and the US, and while its details are sketchy, it’s clear its focus is on “security challenges in the Indo Pacific region”, which means China.
Central to the AUKUS agreement is that our nation will be provided access to US technology that will see it acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines, which will ensure Australia can approach close enough to China that it can strike the mainland with missiles.
Another military pact involving the US and Australia is the 2014 Force Posture Agreement, which provides that an increasing number of US troops rotate through the north of the country on an annual basis, and that Washington has unimpeded access to dozens of Australian military facilities.
Meanwhile, the 1951 ANZUS treaty continues to be the foundational security agreement between this country and the United States.
However, the commonly held belief that ANZUS ensures that the US would be required to back an Australia under attack is a falsehood, as the United States only ever acts in its own interests, whether that be in relation to Beijing or Canberra. Read the interview https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-threat-from-china-is-a-lie-peace-activist-nick-deane-on-the-build-up-to-war/