Eric's Insight: Quad summit leaves Asian countries iron curtain

Following his Quad summit with the Asian leaders in Japan late May, Biden was informed of the deadly gun violence in a US campus during his flight over the vast Pacific Ocean.

Biden talks merrily with premiers of Australia and India on May 24, while Japanese leader is waiting in obedience. (Online photo subject to deletion in case of rights infringement)

Biden, nearing his 80s now, was extremely saddened by the news. But in the eyes of some Chinese folks, this is a sign of an evil deed that has been noted by the heaven, with the agent to be punished sooner or later.

While paying tribute to victims and some pity to the first US citizen, we couldn’t help reflecting on the hostile Quad block the US and its proxy Japan designed to contain China, the traditional oriental power that has been in national humiliation since the mid-19th century.

The Chinese holds the Confucian tenet that man is naturally kind since the very beginning of birth. What is beyond the Chinese folks is why the western powers could not stand China’s peaceful rise via its hard work, instead of via their cannon-ball killings and inhuman exploitation.

The Quad summit in Tokyo is already the fourth of its kind within just a matter of two years. Given the Covid lock downs, such meeting frequency at the top level did sent a serious warning, leaving the Chinese side highly alert over the imminent threat.

To make things worse, Biden himself said during the summit that in the case of PLA taking over Taiwan, the US would get involved militarily. This is the US president’s third mentioning of “military interference into Taiwan.”

Although the White House later issued another statement, saying the US stance over the Taiwan question remains unchanged, few of the Chinese folks took that sort of interpretation seriously. They know Biden meant what he said, and the president said that with a clear mind.

With Biden’s third harsh statement over Taiwan and the roll-out of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that excluded the ASEAN members of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, an iron curtain has fallen down among the Asian countries, separating the Asia-Pacific region politically and economically.

Biden is saddened by news of deadly campus gun violence following the Quad summit. (Online photo subject to deletion in case of rights infringement)

Almost everyone sensible knows the result of corning a great power in the case of Russia-Ukraine conflict, but unfortunately the Japs and Uncle Sam have seen nothing from the ongoing European tragedy and insisted on their plotting.

In return, four Russo-Chinese bombers flew near the Japanese airspace. Although the officials said it belonged to a regular joint drill between the two countries, the public opinion tended to see it as a special “gift” to the Quad summit.

Russia did not buy the NATO eastward expansion. Will China do nothing in the face of a hostile Quad that underpins the Indo-Pacific Strategy designed to counter the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative? Probably not.

During the just-concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghe said that in the event of US military intervention over Taiwan, China has no choice but to fight to very end at all cost, citing the historical allusion of the Amerian Civil War.

Then, the US presidential advisor on national security Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Luxembourg on June 13, and statements of both sides say the 4.5-hour talk was candid, substantive and productive, underscoring the importance of maintaining open lines of communication.

In spite of this, the future of the Sino-US ties and the Asia-Pacific region is by no means promising. “The China-US relations will remain at a low key for the years to come. They may fluctuate from time to time, but as a whole the two countries will see weakening ties, drifting away farther and farther,” said Wu Xinbo, director at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University, during a recent webinar.

(The writer Eric Wang Shixue is an English editor with the Mekong News Network based in Kunming, Yunnan province. The view in the article does not necessarily represent that of Yunnan Gateway.)