In a move that was not surprising to people who are closely following the political developments in the Indo-Pacific region, China has announced that it is launching an initiative to counter the India, USA, Japan and Australia alliance known as the Quad.
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or the Quad is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India that is maintained by talks between member countries. The grouping was initiated in 2007 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, with the support of Vice President Dick Cheney of the US, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India.
The dialogue followed increased maritime activity in the Indo Pacific and mainly in the South China Sea in what was considered as an open message to China to curtail their illegal expansionist policy in the South China Sea. The Chinese government had initially responded by lodging a formal complaint with all the participant nations. They have also issued a decree to countries dependant on China to stay away from the Quad and resist all inclinations to participate.
Most recently, China had issued an open threat to Bangladesh to not engage with the Quad in any way to which Bangladesh responded saying that China should not interfere in Bangladesh’s internal matters and that being a free and sovereign country they will take their own decisions.
This has led to what many experts believe is a knee jerk response from China to save face and there is a consensus that it is not only ill-timed but also ill-fated. China has been open about its expansionist policies on land and sea. China is currently locked in territorial disputes with all its neighbours and has influenced countries to part with land in exchange for economic or political aid.
Being an alliance of countries who are not culturally or socio-politically similar have always failed and any alliance with China is destined to deliver the same result.
Our sources within the Chinese Communist Party or the CCP have told us that China cannot risk losing face again after the aftermath of the Bangladesh incident. He also let us know that the South China Sea is very important for the growth of China and that they will resort to any means to ensure that it is fully in their control.
We pressed on further to know more about the PENTA grouping. Our source told us that this will be an informal alliance whose core objective will be to safeguard the interests of the 5 member nations within the South China Sea. There will be a quarterly dialogue and joint military and navy exercises planned to counter the “offensive” tactics of the Quad.
Our source has also revealed that the 5 member nations who comprise the PENTA are Pakistan, Turkey, Cambodia, North Korea and Azerbaijan.
The grouping of the countries seemed completely random to us, which led to us digging for more information within the airtight chambers of the Communist Party. The reason we did not believe that this was an amalgamation of a group of like-minded countries was
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/12/china-launches-penta-alliance-to-counter-the-quad-after-bangladesh-rebuke/