China slams U.S.-led plan to give nuclear submarines to Australia

China slammed the new Indo-Pacific security alliance unveiled by the U.S., the U.K. and Australia on Wednesday, especially the plan to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular briefing on Thursday that the three English-speaking nations should "abandon their Cold War and zero-sum game mentality." Otherwise, he said, they would "lift a rock that drops on their own feet," according to the Global Times, a Communist Party-backed newspaper.

Under the pact, dubbed AUKUS, Australia will be only the second country after Britain, in the 1950s, to gain access to American technology to build nuclear-powered submarines. A joint statement said the three nations would seek to deliver at least eight vessels. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison talked up the submarines' capabilities, while strenuously denying any intention to arm them with atomic weapons.

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