AUKUS leaders prefer posturing, provocation to dialogue: media

HONG KONG, June 6 (Xinhua) -- AUKUS leaders prefer posturing and provocation to dialogue as U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin insisted on belligerence and doublespeak at the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, reported the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English-language daily.

Noting that the conference provided an opportunity for negotiation, Alex Lo, a columnist of the daily, wrote that just as it was taking place, the United States and Canada staged a highly provocative joint naval exercise sailing through the Taiwan Strait.

When it comes to China, the Joe Biden administration has become a one-trick pony -- pretend to be ready for dialogue, then go in for the kill, according to Lo.

"So obvious, so predictable!" Lo observed, "An observer from Mars may reasonably conclude that such words and actions of the U.S. and its client states otherwise known as allies are more likely to turn the region into a powder keg."

"Austin does not sound like a guy who wants a genuine dialogue to calm tensions and address potential flare-ups. Rather, it's the same old Washington trick: either to make the Chinese out to be the rejectionists, or force them to acquiesce to their own containment and encirclement," he said.