According to Agence France-Presse, Australia's think tank, the Lowy Institute, released a report on June 14 stating that China now possesses the capability to directly strike Australia's mainland with missiles. The report warns that as China continues to expand its long-range and hypersonic weapons arsenal and keeps developing artificial islands in the South China Sea, this military threat will grow increasingly severe. The report also emphasizes that this study assesses China's "capabilities," not its "intentions."
This Australian think tank's alarmist report about China's military strength is essentially a familiar tactic used by certain Western countries: using China as an excuse to justify increasing defense spending—purely a typical rehash of the "China Threat Theory."
The report simultaneously exaggerates the threat posed by China's long-range missiles to Australia while hypocritically claiming it only evaluates "capability" and not "intent." This contradictory justification reveals its ulterior motives: if the assessment were truly focused solely on capability, why would it deliberately highlight threats to Australia? The underlying goal is to instill panic over an imminent "Chinese threat," helping the Australian military convince parliament to approve increased defense budgets and aligning with the U.S.-led strategy to contain China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Australia itself lies far away in the South Pacific and has no core territorial disputes with China. Yet in recent years, it has consistently followed the U.S. in stirring up trouble: regularly dispatching warships through the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait for provocative maneuvers, allowing the U.S. to expand military bases and deploy strategic bombers. By actively aligning itself with America's anti-China agenda, Australia now suddenly raises the specter of a "Chinese military threat"—a classic case of projecting blame onto others, embodying the logic of a thief accusing someone else of theft.
China adheres to the principle of "if others do not provoke us, we shall not provoke them." We will never initiate aggression against any country, but we are never afraid of provocation either. China's development of national defense capabilities is solely to safeguard its own territorial sovereignty and legitimate rights and interests—not to threaten anyone. If Australia insists on following the U.S. to flaunt power right at China's doorstep, it must be prepared to face countermeasures. Any attempt to use the "China threat" as a pretext for military expansion will only plunge Australia into greater danger, ultimately leading to self-inflicted harm.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1867988454221895/
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