(AFP) - China on Tuesday condemned the "wrong and dangerous path" taken by the partnership concluded between the United States , Britain and Australia as part of the submarine program aimed at confronting Beijing's influence in the Pacific.

The partnership concluded Monday, known as the AUKUS alliance, will see Australia replace its fleet of diesel-powered submarines with a new generation of nuclear-propelled submarines.

This replacement will be achieved first through the purchase of American submarines, and then the manufacture of a new type of submarine on Australian soil with a joint design between the United States, Britain and Australia.

This attack submarine program aims to maintain the decades-old balance of power in the Pacific region.

Beijing condemned the initiative of the United States, Britain and Australia.

"The recent joint statement issued by the United States, Britain and Australia shows that these three countries are increasingly taking a wrong and dangerous path to serve their geopolitical interests, in complete disregard for the concerns of the international community," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

China looks with displeasure, especially at the rapprochement that began in the past years in the region between the authorities of Taiwan and the United States, which has been providing the island for decades with military support in the face of Beijing.

The communist authority considers the island a province of China that it has not been able to annex to the rest of the lands since the end of the Chinese civil war (1949).

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping accused the United States of leading Western efforts towards "total containment, encirclement and suppression of China."

But Washington notes that Beijing raises the concerns of countries in the Asia-Pacific region through its threats to invade Taiwan, which enjoys democratic rule, in addition to stressing the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea.