China’s state media has been particularly critical of Pompeo, highlighting the fact that he was the only one among the four ministers who directly mentioned China.
China said on Friday that it opposed “organizing closed and exclusive cliques,” underscoring its cautious response to this week’s ministerial meeting of the Quad group, India, Australia, Japan and the United States.
At Tuesday’s ministerial meeting in Tokyo, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo singled out China as a threat to the region, although the three other foreign ministers, including Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, they did not directly mention China. However, they expressed broad concerns about the maintenance of a rules-based order, freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the region.
“As partners in this Quad, it is now more critical than ever that we work together to protect our people and partners from the exploitation, corruption and coercion of the Chinese Communist Party,” Pompeo said. “We have seen it in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Mekong, the Himalayas, the Taiwan Strait. These are just some examples.”
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing on Friday, the first after China’s week-long national holiday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said in response to a question at the Quad meeting: “This is now the 21st century and we are living in an era of globalization. The interests of all countries are so intertwined that the organization of closed and exclusive cliques will not help to generate mutual trust and cooperation, especially when we face urgent tasks to fight the pandemic and reactivate the world economy.
“We hope that countries will take into account the common interest of all countries and focus on fighting the virus with collective efforts, while creating a peaceful environment and cooperative opportunities for regional and global economic recovery,” he added.
China’s state media has been particularly critical of Pompeo, highlighting the fact that he was the only one among the four ministers who directly mentioned China.
“Pompeo said it was now critical for America’s regional allies in the Indo-Pacific region to counter the exploitation, coercion and corruption of the Communist Party of China in the South and East Seas of China, the Mekong, the Himalayas and the Strait of Taiwan. Meanwhile, other members of the Quad have been cautious, ”Shen Yi, a professor at the Faculty of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai, said in a comment in the Party-run Global Times.
“One could argue that such an outcome is predictable, as each of the Quad members is calculating their own separate interests,” Shen said. “The United States, which has signed military alliance treaties with Japan and Australia, now wants to involve India to push not only the alliance and join China. However, that goal is not easy to achieve. India is unlikely to side with the United States. He’s been spreading his bread on both sides of the major power plays since the Cold War. “
Mr. Shen said “The United States hopes to formalize the Quad into a NATO-like alliance,” but the other members were less enthusiastic. “If the United States wants to count India in its ‘Asian NATO’, it would need to persuade India to give up its Russian-made weapons and invest substantially to change the standards of Indian firearms to the standards of the United States,” he said . “America has been barking loudly before and during the Quad meeting. But will it bite into the Quad’s expected ‘drive’? The answer is no.”
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