Growing concerns over the threat China poses to Pacific stability loomed large as President Joe Biden joined Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday.
Meeting in San Diego, the three leaders unveiled details of the so-called"AUKUS" submarine deal. The agreement will see the United States and the United Kingdom equip Australia with a nuclear submarine attack fleet. Those submarines will not be armed with nuclear weapons but will be powered by nuclear reactors. They will replace Australia's conventionally powered diesel-electric submarines.Where Biden sees China as the preeminent national security challenge to the U.S.
As prime minister, Sunak has resisted calls from the U.K. intelligence community to identify China as an explicit threat to British interests. Instead, he is now declaring China to be an"epoch-defining challenge." Top line: Sunak doesn't want to upset Beijing too much. This concern is further underlined by British foreign minister James Cleverly, regarded as particularly weak on China by some in the U.K. and U.S. intelligence communities.
In the same way, Albanese's government has moved swiftly in an attempt to improve relations with Beijing, which soured badly under the prior government. China's confidence that it has a more pliable partner in Albanese is underlined by the increasing pressure of Chinese state media for his government to push pro-Beijing propaganda to Australians.
What does this mean for America? The AUKUS deal is positive, and Australia and the U.K. remain very close allies. Japan, however, is clearly now the most reliable U.S. ally when it comes to addressing China's extraordinary challenge.
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