The Quad & The Rising War Danger in the Pacific

By Caleb T. Maupin

The Quad shows America again as the most aggressively warmongering nation on earth. 

The Quad alliance supposedly exists to prevent the region from being dominated by any great power, but neither India nor Japan, nor Australia seem to notice the current hegemony of the United States, a non-Asian power situated 10000 miles from their corner of the globe.  The US is constantly forming "defensive" alliances against non-existing threats.

Most Americans have never heard of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad). When the White House issued a statement “In the Spirit of the Quad” it got very little attention in American media. However, as the world is becoming increasingly polarized and anti-China rhetoric is increasing in US media, big events related to it could soon be taking place.

The Quad goes back to 2007. It was established as a means for India, Australia, the United States and Japan to formally communicate regarding issues of security.  The White House statement, released March 12^th 2021 states: “Together, we commit to promoting a free, open rules-based order, rooted in international law to advance security and prosperity and counter threats to both in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. We support the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values, and territorial integrity.”

“It could be regarded as the NATO of the South,” said Simon Young of the Red Circle Network. China is not mentioned in the statement, but is the elephant in the room: “Pretty much everything the Quad is being set up around is the doctrine of containment of China, and that comes from the US.”

The transparent bad faith of this new American creation, designed to check Chinese influence, can be seen in this map, where the US hegemon is clearly the interloper. For that matter, Australia, too, is not exactly in the immediate "neighborhood".

Dan Kavolik, an author and legal scholar in the United States said the hysterical anti-China tone of US media is not really about Chinese aggression, as he put it “China has proven to have the superior system economically, socially, health-wise, that’s the concern. The United States has realized it cannot compete on a level playing field with China, so it may be looking to military means to do that.”

“I think all southeast Asian nations, a bit like Australia in a way, except many of them have Chinese-origins or Chinese populations, they all have China as their number one trading partner, they see their future tied to China, so they have very difficult… I can imagine that many Southeast Asian countries would be quite uncomfortable about the Quad,” explained Asia analyst David Thomas.

The United States accuses China of engaging in “Vaccine diplomacy.” The fact that China is granting access to its vaccine to many countries around the world is portrayed as scandalous by US leaders. Duncan Calder of the Red Circle Network sees it differently: “It has in fact given away tens of millions of its vaccines throughout Asia and Africa. These countries aren’t going to forget that support. In a time of need they have received it from China, in a time of need they have not received it from the west… China’s vaccine is actually open access. They haven’t wrapped it up in all kinds of IP protections. If you have the capability to manufacture the vaccine, then you can do it. China won’t be charging, you can just have the IP and do it for yourself. This is a much more humanistic and harmonistic approach to engagement with countries in times of crisis.”

Some view US hostility to the Chinese vaccine as rooted in a problematic competitive attitude: “The vaccine industry is a global business game with trillions of dollars on the line… Of course, the US government and social media companies act as an extension of US power. They are playing on the side of Team America. Dr. Anthony Fauci is constantly railing against vaccine skepticism, but he himself has said he is skeptical of the Russian vaccine,” said journalist Alex Rubinstein.

Beneath the diplomatic language and talk of human rights and democracy, a dangerous escalation appears to be brewing. While the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue remains largely unknown to Americans, it is a pivotal part of a dangerous trajectory in global politics, as countries throughout the Pacific are being polarized in what has the potential to be a new world war.

Caleb Maupin was able to speak to a panel of experts about the Quad. Video of these conversations is below.

Caleb Maupin is a widely acclaimed speaker, writer, journalist, and political analyst. He has traveled extensively in the Middle East and in Latin America. He was involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement from its early planning stages, and has been involved many struggles for social justice. He is an outspoken advocate of international friendship and cooperation, as well as 21st Century Socialism. He doesn’t shy away from the word “Communism” when explaining his political views, and advocates that the USA move toward some form of “socialism with American characteristics” rooted in the democratic and egalitarian traditions often found in American history. He argues that the present crisis can only be abetted with an “American Rebirth” in which the radicalism and community-centered values of the country are re-established and strengthened.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post