China’s Global Times excoriates Great Britain for using its military alliances to stir up a war between China and a British militarily-supported Taiwan, as a dangerous operation, in its July 28 editorial, “Taiwan Straits Not a ‘Projection Screen’ for Britain’s Imperial Nostalgia.”
On July 26, U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey met with Australian Foreign Minister Richard Marles in Geelong, Australia, where they signed the bilateral Nuclear-Powered Submarine Partnership and Collaboration Treaty, committing the two countries to a 50-year defense cooperation, under AUKUS Pillar I, which features the building and deployment of, among other things, nuclear-powered attack submarines, with a focus against China.
Asked by British daily The Telegraph about what the U.K. is doing to help areas like Taiwan to prepare for potential escalation from China, Mr. Healey said July 27: “If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and the U.K. are nations that will fight together.”
Global Times pointed out Australia’s hypocrisy, as when Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had been in Beijing less than two weeks earlier, in his July 15 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he “confirmed that Australia remains committed to the one-China policy and does not support “Taiwan independence,” Global Times reported.
Yet, recognizing that the British Empire is behind the policy that guides its and Australia’s actions, Global Times went full bore after the British. It stated, “Yet, the Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests and represents a red line that must not be tread [sic] upon. The Taiwan Straits are not a ‘projection screen’ for Britain’s imperial nostalgia….”
It concluded: “China’s strategic resolve, military preparedness and unwavering will to defend national reunification cannot be shaken by a few warmongering remarks from some Western figures. Any reckless rhetoric on the Taiwan question will only serve to expose strategic fragility—and leave those who uttered such words embarrassing themselves on the global stage.”
