But ChinaвЂ™s increasingly belligerent conduct-especially its unwarranted decision to impose a punishing trade embargo in response to an Australian proposal for an independent international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus-has triggered a steady hardening of Australian attitudes. Until recently, Australian opinion was ambivalent about the implications of ChinaвЂ™s rise: Business leaders hoped to preserve lucrative commercial ties, and prominent strategists warned that opposing the growth of Chinese power was not in AustraliaвЂ™s interest. Second, although whatвЂ™s going on here is to some degree purely structural (that is, reflecting shifts in the balance of overall capabilities), in other respects, Beijing has no one to blame but itself. Equipping Australia with long-range, extremely quiet nuclear-powered submarines will enable Canberra to play a more active role in the region, along with the other members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the United States, India, and Japan). These perceptions are partly based on ChinaвЂ™s increased capabilities-including its capacity to project naval power in the Asia-Pacific-but also on its openly revisionist aims in certain areas.

Although China was not mentioned anywhere in the announcement, it doesnвЂ™t take a genius to figure out this initiative was taken in response to growing perceptions of a rising Chinese threat. But why it came together-and what it means-is more complicated and far more revealing about where the world is heading.ДЇirst and most obviously, this move is a classic illustration of balance-of-power/balance-of-threat politics at work. Those basic facts about AUKUS are pretty straightforward. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced plans for more extensive cooperation on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.

The three states are close allies of long standing, but the headline item in the new arrangement is a joint effort to equip Australia with a fleet of advanced nuclear-powered submarines. 15, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia unveiled a new security partnership, with the less-than-euphonious acronym AUKUS.

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