A street in Hong Kong
Beijing: Of late QUAD, AUKUS and EU have made China uncomfortable and its problems seem to be compounded with he way it has moved to muzzle democratic voices in Hong Kong. Pushed against the wall, it has claimed itself to be a “builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order and a provider of public goods”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters on September 27, that China’s growth “means a growing force for world peace and a blessing for regional prosperity and development”.
China has hit hard on the QUAD grouping comprising Japan, India, the United States and Australia, claiming these countries have keen on driving a wedge between regional countries and Beijing.
Responding to the recently concluded first-ever in-person QUAD summit hosted by the US President Joe Biden in the White House last week, China claimed that “these countries have been keen on insinuating China with the so-called “rules-based order”, playing up and inciting the so-called “China threat” theory, and driving a wedge between regional countries and China”.
Chunying went on to claim that China cannot be accused of “coercion” or “disruption of order”. It may be mentioned that the QUAD nations, in a joint statement on September 24, 2021 had stated that they will “continue to champion adherence to international law, particularly as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to meet challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the East and South China Seas”.
Incidentally, earlier on September 16, 2021, even the European Union, while releasing the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, had hit out at China for the display of force and increasing tensions in regional hotspots such as in the South and East China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait, that it had claimed “may have a direct impact on European security and prosperity”.
The Hong Kong issue too has concerned the democratic forces and after China’s foreign ministry published the ‘Fact Sheet: US Interference in Hong Kong Affairs and Support for Anti-China, Destabilizing Forces’, the US State Department responded saying that the American actions were fully consistent with international law and suggesting otherwise was simply an attempt by Beijing to divert attention from “its own bad conduct”, and undermined the city’s appeal as a hub of openness and free exchange.
China now retorts saying the remarks by the US “once again prove that the so-called international law the US talks about is nothing but a cover for its wanton interference in others’ internal affairs to pursue hegemony and bullying based on its own liking and self-interests in the name of freedom and democracy”.
Chunying stated: “Hong Kong is a society with the rule of law, where the residents have their legal rights and freedom fully protected in accordance with law. Hong Kong ranks the third in the Global Financial Centres Index report released recently. This again shows the degree of freedom and openness in Hong Kong as an international financial center is widely appreciated.”
What has further ruffled China is the decision of the United States and U.K. to help Australia acquire submarines capable of being fitted with nuclear warheads. The Western powers in favour of the deal along with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison have pronounced the deal as a means to curb the threat perception emanating from the nuclear capabilities of socialist China in the east.
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This prompted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comment on September 25 that since nuclear submarines use weapons-grade uranium, if Australia acquired nuclear-powered submarines within the framework of the new AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, USA) defense alliance, Russia will probably have to request IAEA oversight.
Already China had warned on Septermber 22 that the nuclear-powered submarine technology between the US, the UK and Australia will gravely undermine regional peace and stability.
On September 27, Chinese foreign minister spokesperson Chunying reiterated that the AUKUS cooperation on nuclear submarines posed a serious risk of nuclear proliferation and violated the spirit of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). “The concerns expressed by the Russian side are completely legitimate and reasonable,” she said.
Claiming that the export of nuclear submarines to Australia, a non-nuclear weapon state, would involve the transfer of sensitive nuclear materials such as weapons-grade highly enriched uranium and related technology and equipment, China said there were “gaps in the IAEA’s safeguards system, which cannot effectively prevent Australia from using relevant nuclear materials to manufacture nuclear weapons”. While stating that it was “firmly opposed to the US, the UK and Australia’s malicious exploitation of loopholes in the NPT and the IAEA safeguards mechanism”, Beijing asserted that it will firmly safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Incidetally, India has favoured the AUKUS decision on the nuclear submarine deal by supporting the Australian claim that the nuclear propelled submarine would not have any nuclear weapons and as such will not be in contravention with any of Australia’s or international commitments with regard to the issue of nuclear proliferation.
China has prolonged denial of visas to Indians that prompted India’s Ambassador to China Vikram Misri terming China’s continued visa ban on Indian students, family members, businessmen, marine crew etc. as “unscientific approach”.
India, it may be mentioned, has continued to issue visas to Chinese businessmen to visit India despite current differences in the bilateral relations.
Chunying though claimed on September 27, that on the visa issue, the prevention and control measures that “China has to adopt amid COVID-19 are not targeting India, but applied to everyone”.
– global bihari bureau
