AUKUS

MerylStreep, you do admit that China 'owns' so much of British infrastructure. What possible harm could come from us pissing them off? Not so much 'Global Britain' as 'Globally Owned Britain'.

And a good John Lichfield summary here.
unherd.com/2021/09/whats-behind-macrons-fury/

I think the diplomatic and geo-political implications are summed up pretty well here.
www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2021/09/17/les-trois-lecons-de-l-alliance-entre-l-australie-les-etats-unis-et-le-royaume-uni_6095013_3232.html

Yes from reading the French press (as opposed to the Anglophone) I think there is sadness on both sides at that nanna8. I think the question is "What does it mean to be Allies?"

From Australia’s point of view the sad thing is we always had a ‘special’ relationship with France dating back to World war 2 .

Peff68

Not sure if it’s been said but these are nuclear ‘powered’ submarines I believe they carry no nuclear weapons as Australia do not want that.

It's been said once or twice before, but people DRTT...

I'm guessing that each country would want to be first in this acronym:

UKAUS
UKUSA

Either of these looks like a collaboration between only 2 countries but I do prefer UKAUS.

Not sure if it’s been said but these are nuclear ‘powered’ submarines I believe they carry no nuclear weapons as Australia do not want that.

MerylStreep

Here you are Railman

makeitbritish.co.uk/made-in-britain/

Ah, bless.

The company I worked for just before retiring manufactured electronic goods in Britain. Guess where the chips came from. And the other electronic components. And the ceramic casings. And the wiring.

Here you are Railman

makeitbritish.co.uk/made-in-britain/

It’s obvious that the Australians couldn’t go with the French nuclear sun. Which would have meant the French building diesel/ electric subs which are hardly 21st century.
The oil for these subs would come from the Middle East and refined in Japan.
Let’s just imagine that there was a blockade ? in the South China Sea ( not for one moment that could happen, mmm) but Australian can only hold about 6 months supply, they’re stuffed.

railman thank you for explaining that the French had a contract with Australia.....I would never have known that.

MerylStreep

This might make change of mind a bit clearer.
The French nuclear powered options required complex work midway through the life of the submarine, meaning it would have required a more advanced domestic nuclear industry
The game changer was the US and UK willingness to share their technology

I take that to mean that the French just weren’t up to the job.

That seems to be the case. Hence the attempt to deflect the French population from something voters might blame the government for. It's sad. However, our government would and does do the same in those circumstances. They just find a Straw Man to blame and distract.

lemongrove

Not well put at all actually, it’s a nonsense.
We are not ‘playing soldiers’ but have agreed to come in on a deal together with the US when asked by Australia, for tech help for building nuclear subs for them.They feel intimidated by what the Chinese are doing in their part of the world, and if you don’t think that China is building up it’s military might at an alarming rate then you haven’t been following world events closely enough.They are going for gold with economic power too, but that can be countered as well, if the rest of the world resists their many shoddy goods and imposes sanctions where needed.
Were the French ‘playing soldiers’ with Australia with the deal they have just lost?

Well the French had a contract to build and supply the submarines - supporting their industry and technology. What the UK has is essentially permission from the USA to supply the US technology to Australia.

The USA of course supplies the technology to the UK - including the cheap and cheerful PWR2 reactor systems that were sold to Margaret Thatcher by Ronald Reagan,

Australia reneging on its contract is just copying the Boris Johnson approach.

GrannyGravy13

Hopefully it might make China think twice about world domination.

Can you find something that isn't wholly or partially made in China?

Maremia
It’s got nothing to do with our expertise but everything to do with George Osborne selling our country to the Chinese.

katy1950

The French will never be happy with England no matter what we do

I think that works both ways for a proportion of both populations katy1950. Sadly governments find appealing to the lowest lowest common denominator makes life very easy for them.

This might make change of mind a bit clearer.
The French nuclear powered options required complex work midway through the life of the submarine, meaning it would have required a more advanced domestic nuclear industry
The game changer was the US and UK willingness to share their technology

I take that to mean that the French just weren’t up to the job.

EEJit

We're not proliferating nuclear weapons, the subs are nuclear powered and will carry non nuclear weapons.

Bears repeating EEjit ?
Some on here are getting confused.

So, Johnson's Global Britain is going to curb the power of China in the Pacific?
Meanwhile in the real world,
China is building our new nuclear power infrastructure as we no longer have the expertise,
China operates Crossrail in London and holds stakes in various other pieces of UK public transport infrastructure,
and has stakes in the National Grid, Heathrow Airport and privatised water suppliers,
It adds up to £44 billion worth of UK infrastructure,
Rishi Sunak recently announced his wonderful plan for foreign governments and businesses to buy up even more British companies.
Yes, let's annoy the Chinese. What could possibly go wrong?

The French will never be happy with England no matter what we do

Australia has been a sitting target for years by China. When I lived there in 1974-5 there were no businesses etc owned by the Chinese. They weren’t even Chinese take aways!!!
Now the country has been ravaged by Chinese’s demands for natural resources: a lot of properties, hotels, businesses are owned by them. Australians have been cosy with them for many years but now they are worried. I wonder why???

It sounds like a whale

1WTWab12blow
A retired friend who served on nuclear subs that carried war heads alluded to the fact that it was French security.
That’s also the reason that no eu country is a member of 5 eyes.

Back to the OP, our family in Australia are becoming increasingly aware of the Chinese attitude to Australasia, in the eighties we were all jesting about the influx of Japanese along the Gold Coast.

China is more of a concern to them.