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| Quad video conferencing for security councils in the US, Japan, India and Australia © AFP=News1 |
China’s state-run Global Times announced that it could not be the’Asian version of NATO’ (NATO) as the United States thought of the recent quad (US, Japan, India, Australia) summit. This is because each country that makes up the quad is China’s largest trading partner, and although there are territorial disputes, they prefer to manage them properly rather than fight them.
The Global Times claimed this in an editorial titled’Propelling’Asian NATO’ beyond US capacity’ on the 13th.
China explained that the security council quad, composed of four countries including the United States, did not specify China after completing a video conference on the 12th, but made a joint statement with many phrases specifically targeting the country. It is pointed out that phrases such as “indo-Pacific region not bound by coercion” “will expand vaccine production in India” are aimed at China.
However, the Global Times explained that the statement “did not mention China at all, but that fact reflects the different positions of the four countries on China.” He said that if China failed to develop and collapsed, or if China became militaristic like Japan 80 years ago, or if the US economy is booming, the Asian version of NATO may be able to succeed.
But in reality, the Global Times said, “China is the largest trading partner of Japan, Australia and India, and the number one trading partner of most other Asia-Pacific countries. None of them are afraid of Chinese aggression.”
“Japan and India have historically had territorial disputes with China, but they clearly know that managing such disputes is more beneficial to their national interests than fighting China while relying on US support.” So the Global Times pointed out that in the end, “the four quad countries will have long-term differences and confusion over what the basis of the quad mechanism should be.”