CD (Portland) — In a move that critics are calling a “dangerous escalation,” the United States is reportedly preparing to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to northern Australia, where they would be close enough to strike China.

“The ability to deploy US Air Force bombers to Australia sends a strong message to adversaries about our ability to project lethal air power,” the US Air Force told Four Corners, a television program of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Becca Wasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington DC-based think tank, told ABC that “having bombers that could range and potentially attack mainland China could be very important in sending a signal to China that any of its actions over Taiwan could also expand further.”

Investigative journalist Peter Cronau, however, described the plan, which came with “no debate [or] discussion,” as “military madness [that] is fanning tensions with China.”

Cronau’s message was echoed by David Shoebridge, an Australian Greens senator for New South Wales.

“This is a dangerous escalation,” Shoebridge wrote on Twitter. “It makes Australia an even bigger part of the global nuclear weapons threat to humanity’s very existence—and by raising military tensions it further destabilizes our region.”

Washington is reportedly planning to build dedicated facilities for the nuclear-capable B-52 bombers at Royal Australian Air Force Base Tindal, less than two hundred miles south of Darwin, the capital of the country’s Northern Territory.

The Pentagon’s plan represents the latest US provocation aimed at China.

Relations between the two countries have worsened since August, when US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress visited Taiwan despite warnings from Beijing.

Although US President Joe Biden warned last month that Russia’s assault on Ukraine has brought the world closer to “Armageddon” than at any point since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, his move to station B-52 bombers in Australia arguably increases the global risk of nuclear war.

According to Stephen Young, senior Washington representative at the Union of Concerned Scientists, “The world is becoming a more dangerous place, but the only military threat to the survival of the United States is a nuclear war with Russia or China.”

The move to park B-52 bombers at the Tindal air base also comes just over a year after the establishment of the so-called AUKUS alliance, a trilateral military partnership through which the United States and the United Kingdom plan to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines—a long-term initiative widely seen as a challenge to China.

Some Australian critics expressed concerns that the planned deployment of US military aircraft to the Northern Territory locks their country into joining Washington in the event an armed conflict with China.

“It’s a great expansion of Australian commitment to the United States’ war plan with China,” said Richard Tanter, a senior research associate at the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability. “It’s a sign to the Chinese that we are willing to be the tip of the spear… It’s very hard to think of a more open commitment that we could make; a more open signal to the Chinese that we are going along with American planning for a war with China.”

Beijing, for its part, accused Washington of destabilizing the entire Pacific region with its planned deployment of B-52s.

China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded that military cooperation pacts between countries should “not target any third parties or harm the interests of third parties.”

“The relevant US behaviors have increased regional tensions, seriously undermined regional peace and stability, and may trigger an arms race in the region,” Zhao continued. “China urges the parties concerned to abandon the outdated Cold War and zero-sum mentality, and narrow-minded geopolitical thinking, and to do something conducive to regional peace and stability, enhancing mutual trust between countries.”

Originally published at Common Dreams. Republished by cc by-sa 3.0. Minor edits for style and content.

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