Sub Standard

It turns out that the submarines are going to be built in Australia. So what, exactly, is Britain's role in any of this? Boris Johnson has signed up to it purely as a public school joke, because he wanted to be in on a lark that was going to annoy the French. And are these Chinese artificial islands in the Channel? In the North Sea? In the Irish Sea? In the North Atlantic? How are they our problem?

No party to AUKUS is under any treaty obligation to defend Taiwan, or even has diplomatic relations with it. Neither Australia nor the United Kingdom has anything remotely comparable to the Taiwan Relations Act, the practical effect of which for the United States would have to be tested before the Supreme Court should the situation ever arise, at which point it would arguably be too late.