"We're almost the 51st state...They want China to just paddle a canoe"
2024-08-10
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"The 'US-UK-Australia trilateral security partnership' (AUKUS) is actually military control over Australia, and the Australian government's policies are likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States." Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating angrily denounced on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) current affairs talk show "7.30" on the evening of the 8th.
It is reported that Keating criticized in his program that day that Australia's military partnership with the United States and Britain to secretly balance China's growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region would make itself a "target."
"If we hadn't joined AUKUS, we wouldn't need to defend it. If we didn't have an 'aggressive ally' like the United States, no one would attack Australia. Instead of being 'protected' by such an ally, we might as well rely on ourselves." Keating said Australia is fully capable of defending itself.
When asked by the host why he said the United States was "aggressive", Keating said, "The United States is trying to dictate to China, the largest Asian power, from across the Atlantic."
Screenshot of video of former Australian Prime Minister Keating
Keating expressed his deep concern about the current Australian government's ties with the United States, saying that Americans say they want to protect Taiwan, but Taiwan is not an important interest of Australia and Australia should not interfere. He said there is no reason to worry that mainland China wants to do something to Taiwan, and that "Taiwan is a part of China."
"The Chinese will fight to the last man to defend Taiwan and their own homeland, but the Americans will not accept such a fight, let alone win." Keating said that once a war breaks out and the United States suddenly withdraws, Australia will be the one to take the blame.
When asked why Australia should not form an alliance aimed at balancing China's growing military power, Keating quickly responded, "Because we are not under military threat from China."
“According to the IMF, China’s economy is now 20 percent larger than the U.S.’s. And the Americans expect [the Chinese] to row a boat? Or a canoe? The Chinese have developed their own submarines, frigates, and aircraft carriers, and they are just another great power in the world. And the Americans say, no, no, no, stay where you are, get back in your canoe,” he explained.
Speaking of AUKUS, Keating bluntly stated that this is actually military control over Australia, "The Albanese government and their policies are likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States."
Screenshot of Keating's interview with ABC
As a former Labor leader, Keating has always been critical of AUKUS. He previously said that the government's plan to spend huge sums of money to buy nuclear submarines from the United States to modernize the fleet is "definitely the worst deal in history", and all demands are based on the premise that China has threatened us or is about to threaten us, but the so-called "China threat theory" is groundless. China will not threaten Australia and has never threatened to attack Australia.
He pointed out that in the eyes of the West, China's "crime" was to develop its economy to a size comparable to that of the United States, suggesting that Americans would "prefer" to let 20% of the world's population remain in poverty.
On August 6, US Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin held a ministerial-level "2+2" meeting with visiting Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Michael Mars in Annapolis, Maryland, the United States. According to Reuters, the US Embassy previously stated in a statement that "Blinken and Austin look forward to strengthening cooperation between the two countries on a range of global and regional issues and further deepening the US-Australia alliance with their Australian counterparts."
In an interview with ABC, US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy said that China is an important trading partner and competitor of the United States and Australia, and "is naturally one of the main topics."
Regarding the so-called "trilateral security partnership" established by the United States, Britain and Australia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning previously stated that this is essentially a military cooperation based on a small circle to provoke camp division and military confrontation. It is a typical Cold War mentality, which increases the risk of nuclear proliferation, intensifies the arms race in the Asia-Pacific region, and undermines regional peace and stability. China and many countries in the region have expressed serious concern and opposition to this.
She also stressed that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory and that the Taiwan issue is China's internal affairs, and no external forces have the right to interfere. The United States, Britain and Australia are not direct parties to the South China Sea issue and should not interfere with the efforts of the relevant parties to resolve the dispute through negotiation and consultation.
Source | Observer.com
