Why the Quad Alarms China
the worst-case scenario from Beijing’s perspective is that the Quad could serve as the foundation of a broader global anti-Chinese coalition. If the Quad were to draw other Asian countries, the EU, and NATO into efforts to confront or undermine China’s international ambitions, it could over time swing the collective balance of power definitively against China. The Quad could also lay the groundwork for a broader allied economic, customs, and standards union, which could reshape everything from global infrastructure funding to supply chains to technology standards.
The Quad's success poses a major threat to Beijing’s ambitions.
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The Quad
Japan
India
Australia
US
Five Eyes - US, Aus, NZ, UK, Can
Five Powers - Australia, NZ, UK, Malaysia, Singapore
ASEAN - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Vietnam (UK joins as dialogue partner 5 Aug 2021 - following QE strike group in S China Seas and the permanent deployment of two River Class patrol ships to the area)
CPTPP -Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. On 2 June 2021, CPTPP announced that the accession process (for the UK) would begin.
Japan has generally had a soft-spot for the UK seeing a mirror image of itself on the other side of Eurasia. Islands off the continent. WW2 was a bit of an aberration in that sense.
India and America - have a love-hate relationship with the UK sharing some British customs, the English language, Common Law and variants of democratic practices.
The biggest fly in the ointment for the Chinese is The Commonwealth.
While the UK was suborned by the EU and ignored, or separated from, the Commonwealth, those countries became the happy hunting grounds for the Chinese - supplying cheap resources. They were easily bought, corrupted or intimidated.
If the Commonwealth is revived as a Quad entity, together with the Five Eyes, Five Powers, ASEAN, and the CPTPP then China will find itself severely circumscribed.
Coincidentally so will the rest of Eurasia (Russia and the EU).
And George Orwell will be right again - Oceania vs Eurasia.
Countries by region
Africa
Asia
Caribbean and Americas
Europe
Pacific
PS - Ultimately, the biggest question may be what all of this means for Xi,
PPS - When we write The United Kingdom it is often forgotten that that includes not just Scotland, England and Wales on Great Britain and Ulster on Ireland, but also the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (with their own independent parliaments and tax regimes) and the 14 British Overseas Territories:
The UK Overseas Territories are:
Many of them strategic outposts and some well known for their independent tax policies.
They too are members of the Commonwealth. If they were to be able to vote in the UN with the rest of the Commonwealth, as a block, then that would really put a spanner in the works.
