China warns of ‘Ukraine-like crisis' after AUKUS' hypersonic weapons deal

Beijing, April 6: In order to counter China, the United States, Britain and Australia said they would begin collaborating on hypersonic missile strikes and defence capacity. This deal between these three countries did not go down well with Beijing. Reacting to this, China’s envoy to the United Nations, Zhang Jun spoke against the AUKUS partnership on developing hypersonic weapons.

 

Speaking about the proposed cooperation deal, the Chinese envoy termed it as "things which may lead other parts of the world into crisis". Stating the example of Ukraine, Jun said that the countries should refrain from such deals regarding the development of hypersonic weapons.

 

 

Jun noted that countries that plan to cooperate on developing hypersonic weapons could pave the way to another ‘Ukraine-like crisis’. Furthermore, the envoy also took a dig at the Western nations for the deal and said that it was imposing something it is against.

 

"Anyone who does not want to see the Ukrainian crisis should refrain from doing things that may lead the other parts of the world into a crisis like this," Zhang Jun said reacting to the announcement by Australia. "As the Chinese saying goes, if you do not like it, do not impose it against the others," he said in an apparent dig at the countries. The comments came after AUKUS on Tuesday agreed to begin trilateral cooperation on the development of new hypersonic and electronic warfare weaponry.

 

 

The trio are planning to announce cooperation to develop hypersonic weapons to counter China's increasing military might, and its expansion in the Pacific and South China sea. The US Navy might unveil its first installation of a hypersonic weapon similar to ballistic missiles on a warship as early as 2023. This comes as Russia has deployed hypersonic missiles, which are difficult to be shot down due to their manoeuvrability during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.