- Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton mocked China on Friday.
- China criticizes Australia’s nuclear submarine deal.
- Dutton called the criticism “stupid.”
Australia publicly mocked the warnings of a senior Chinese diplomat about its plans to purchase nuclear-powered submarines on Friday, calling the warnings “too stupid and funny.”
Wang Xining, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy, said that if Australia purchases submarines that can perform stealth and long-term missions, Australia will become a “naughty guy.”
Read | France Macron says Australian Prime Minister lied in submarine deal
In an interview with The Guardian, Wang stated that nuclear-powered submarines are designed to launch long-range attacks.
Wang said:
Who are you going to attack? You are no longer a peace-loving person, a defender of peace, you have become a certain form of knife holder.
Since the former ambassador left last month after five years in office, he has been China’s highest representative in Australia.
Wang said Australia has “zero nuclear capability” to deal with any issues affecting submarines, and asked politicians if they are prepared to apologize to people in the event of any incident.
‘It’s so silly and funny’
Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton mocked these “inflammatory” remarks, describing them in television interviews as “provocative, ridiculous remarks, really stupid and funny.”
Dutton said that the acting Chinese ambassador “may be reading the script of the Communist Party, but I think most Australians see through the unproductive nature of these comments”.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in September that he had decided to acquire these nuclear-powered ships in the new defense alliance with the United States and Britain.
The deal angered not only China, but also France, which found at the last minute that its multi-billion-dollar diesel-electric submarine contract with Australia had been cancelled.
In an interview with The Guardian, Wang also warned Australian politicians not to do anything that “destroyed the relationship between the two countries.”
Dutton said over the weekend that he could not imagine Australia would not support the United States in an armed conflict with China over Taiwan’s control.
Taiwan is an autonomous democratic country with a population of 23 million. Beijing claims that one day it will use force to seize the island when necessary.
The icy relationship between Australia and China has caused high-level diplomatic contacts to freeze for nearly two years.
China has imposed severe sanctions on some of Australia’s exports, which Canberra sees as retaliation for Australia’s ban on telecommunications technology giant Huawei from signing key contracts and questioning how the Covid-19 pandemic began.
There is no sign of any party giving up land.
Morrison announced this week a list of 63 “key technologies” including 5G communications to protect them from interference by foreign actors including China.
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