{"id":53480,"date":"2023-03-16T15:59:25","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T06:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/mar\/16\/chinese-official-asks-if-australias-aukus-nuclear-submarines-intended-for-sightseeing"},"modified":"2023-03-16T15:59:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T06:59:25","slug":"chinese-official-asks-if-australias-aukus-nuclear-submarines-intended-for-sightseeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=53480","title":{"rendered":"Chinese official asks if Australia\u2019s Aukus nuclear submarines intended for \u2018sightseeing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Multiple sources present confirm the remark was made, but it is unclear if it was made sarcastically<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/live\/2023\/mar\/16\/australia-news-live-aukus-defence-submarines-economy-interest-rates-weather-heatwave-health-housing-welfare-vic-qld-nsw\">Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2022\/oct\/29\/email-newsletters-guardian-australia-best-daily-news-emails-newsletter-free-sign-up-inbox-subscribe-headlines?CMP=cvau_sfl\">morning and afternoon news emails<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/ng-interactive\/2018\/may\/15\/the-guardian-app?CMP=cvau_sfl\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A Chinese embassy official asked Australian officials during an Aukus briefing whether the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/mar\/14\/what-is-the-aukus-submarine-deal-and-what-does-it-mean-the-key-facts\">nuclear-powered submarines<\/a> were intended for \u201csightseeing\u201d, according to multiple sources.<\/p>\n<p>Guardian Australia understands several others in the room found the intervention curious, because the Australian government has made no secret of the fact the nuclear-powered submarines are to be used by the Royal Australian Navy.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2022\/oct\/29\/email-newsletters-guardian-australia-best-daily-news-emails-newsletter-free-sign-up-inbox-subscribe-headlines?CMP=copyembed\">Sign up for Guardian Australia\u2019s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/mar\/16\/chinese-official-asks-if-australias-aukus-nuclear-submarines-intended-for-sightseeing\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Multiple sources present confirm the remark was made, but it is unclear if it was made sarcasticallyFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastA Chinese embassy off&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2085,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,2346,43,645,1585,50,1767],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-aukus","category-australia-news","category-australian-foreign-policy","category-australian-military","category-china","category-penny-wong"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2085"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53481,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53480\/revisions\/53481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}