China's permanent mission to the United Nations has thwarted an amendment proposed by the AUKUS countries to legitimize their nuclear submarine cooperation. The AUKUS nations, namely the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, proposed the amendment at the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Friday. China said the amendment was attempting to whitewash the bloc's nuclear submarine deal, and China's acts were safeguarding the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.