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Aukus urged to step up as US edge erodes, China ‘very capable of inventing a new future’
- Australia, Britain and the US must collaborate on quantum and hypersonic technology to compete with China, the Sydney Dialogue heard on Tuesday
- The balance of power in the region is shifting away from the US and its allies, Australia’s spy chief told the conference
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The US’ technological edge is eroding, an Australian intelligence chief said on Tuesday, as a Sydney conference was told the Aukus alliance of Australia, Britain and the United States must collaborate on quantum and hypersonic technology to compete with China.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, chairman of the US Special Competitive Studies Project, told the Sydney Dialogue that China was unlike the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, because it was “an autocratic competitor that is run by technocrats that is very capable of inventing a new future”.
Andrew Shearer, the director general of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence, said the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region was starting to “shift away from the United States and its allies, undermining deterrence”.
“We are seeing our long-standing technological edge start to erode, and in some cases that edge is totally gone,” he added.
The Aukus alliance will see Australia buy a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, but Defence Minister Richard Marles told the conference, hosted by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, it would also share other defence technologies.
Australia’s top quantum computer scientist, Michelle Simmons, said Aukus would need to overcome hurdles to collaboration, such as foreign investment and visa restrictions, and she urged the three nations to form a “joint mission” to develop a quantum computer.
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