As the US, the UK and Australia announced they would cooperate to develop hypersonic weapons under the framework

of the new AUKUS alliance and the NATO leaders are set - for the first time ever - to discuss China's influence and
"coercive policies" in its next strategic concept, analysts said that the US is making use of the Ukraine crisis to speed up
the coordination of NATO and the "Asian version of NATO" to serve its purpose of containing China and keep its global
hegemony, which will bring greater harm to both regional and global peace, and risk a regional arms race.  

US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a joint
statement on Tuesday that they were pleased with the progress of the program for nuclear-powered attack submarines for
Australia, and they would cooperate in other areas including hypersonics, counter-hypersonics and electronic warfare,
Reuters reported.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a routine press conference on Wednesday that
exploiting the Ukraine crisis and using the pretext of maintaining security and stability in the Asia-Pacific, AUKUS has
declared in a high-profile manner that the US and the UK will provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and the
three countries will cooperate in developing advanced military technologies such as hypersonic weapons. 

It not only increases nuclear proliferation risks and brings shocks to the international non-proliferation system, but also
intensifies arms race and undermines peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific, Zhao said. 

Its ultimate goal is to build a NATO replica in the Asia-Pacific to serve the US hegemony and self-interests through and
through, Zhao said, urging relevant countries to abandon their Cold War mind-set and zero-sum game. 

Ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which was scheduled to start on Wednesday, NATO
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference on Tuesday that as the NATO leaders discuss developing
NATO's next Strategic Concept, they will, for the first time, take into account China's growing influence and coercive
policies on the global stage. 

The US and its allies are using the Ukraine crisis as an opportunity to deepen more intimate cooperation between NATO
countries and the US alliances in Asia and shift NATO's focus to the Asia-Pacific region, Li Haidong, a professor from
the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

When the US was promoting reforms in NATO to marginalize Russia in Europe, the US and its alliance attempted to
build the Asian NATO and use their advantage and strength to marginalize and contain China. The expansion of NATO
will bring a shock to the world and undermine China's and the global security environment, Li said on Wednesday.  

Many recent moves indicate that the US and the UK are arming the Australian military from all fronts, not only in terms
of maritime attack capabilities with the new nuclear-powered attack submarine deal, but also its long-range strike
capabilities with the latest joint hypersonic weapons program, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the
Global Times on Wednesday.

Just like the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine, not much information has been released about the hypersonic weapons
as of press time. These hypersonic weapons could be land-based, or they can be carried in the air or sea, enabling the
Australian military to launch attacks either alone or in coordination with the US military, Wei said.

By definition, a hypersonic weapon can travel faster than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, and make maneuvers
mid-flight to make its trajectory unpredictable and accurately hit its target. Previous ballistic missiles can exceed Mach 5
but their trajectories are usually fixed, while previous cruise missiles can change course but are not as fast.

The combination of the two characteristics makes the interception of a hypersonic weapon very difficult. Plus hypersonic
weapons usually fly at low altitudes which makes radar detection difficult. 

This has led military observers to believe that no current air defense and anti-missile system in the world can reliably
defend against a hypersonic attack. That is also why the latest AUKUS cooperation would also include anti-hypersonics
and electronic warfare capabilities, as the alliance wishes to find ways to intercept or jam hypersonic weapons, analysts
said.

The US might also aim to deploy detection, monitoring and tracking systems from key locations in the Asia-Pacific like
Australia and Japan to help defend potential hypersonic missile attacks from China, analysts said.

Hypersonic weapons can either be a glider vehicle boosted by a rocket just like a traditional ballistic missile, or can be
more like a cruise missile but with a more advanced scramjet engine and a special aerodynamic design.

China displayed its road-mobile DF-17 missile at the National Day military parade in Beijing on October 1, 2019, with
analysts saying that it is likely a short-range boost-glide hypersonic missile.

Russia is also in possession of hypersonic missiles. On March 18, Russia destroyed an arms depot near the city of Ivano-
Frankivsk in western Ukraine with the Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile, RT reported at the time.

The US successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March, CNN reported on Tuesday, noting that it is an air-launched
air-breathing one - more like a cruise missile rather than a ballistic missile.

Only the US in AUKUS has grasped a certain level of hypersonic weapon technologies, but even the US has made no
mature product of any kind, Wei said. He noted that when the US makes technological breakthroughs, it can transfer the
technologies to the UK and Australia, making coordinated deployment and joint maintenance easy.

The US bears evil intentions by helping allies like Australia build this offensive combat capabilities, and this will risk an
arms race, negatively affect peace and stability in the West Pacific region and pose a larger threat to the US' strategic
competitors - at the cost of Australian taxpayers, Wei said. 

These new weapons could be deployed near China including the South China Sea, making the security environment
around China even worse, according to Wei.
From a geopolitical point of view, analysts said, another aim of the AUKUS hypersonic weapons plan is to intervene in
the Taiwan question.
Admiral Charles Richard, head of US Strategic Command, on Tuesday again hyped China's first test of an intercontinental
ballistic missile-launched hypersonic glide vehicle last July, claiming it marked "the greatest distance and longest flight
time of any land attack weapon system of any nation to date" and a "technological achievement with serious implications
for strategic stability," Bloomberg reported.
In response to the claimed test of the hypersonic missile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao said in October
2021 that it was a routine test of a spacecraft to verify the technology of its reusability, saying it was not missile.
The US has been hyping and making irresponsible remarks on China's normal military modernization development, but it
is enhancing long-range strike capabilities of its own, Wei said. He noted that it is the US that is the true destroyer of
regional and global peace and stability. 
In response to the US' provocations, China should have no illusion and firm up its resolve on strengthening its own
capability. As the US works on AUKUS, QUAD, bilateral allies and others to target the China-Russia cooperation, China
should also promote the building of a regional security framework and deepen cooperation with regional countries, Li
said.