A thread in response to Long Xingchun, visiting fellow at @RSIS_NTU, playing upon every possible bogeyman, predicting calamity in the event of the Quad “becoming a military alliance,” which seems a very distant likelihood at best. 1/8 globaltimes.cn/content/112815…
Promising cold war in Asia, Southeast Asia becoming the frontier of Sino-US confrontation, regional arms races, and proxy wars, and undermined development in Asia, Long has cast aside any claim upon objectivity or academic perspective. 2/8
This is just wild propagandizing and irresponsible fear-mongering, and appears to be just another PRC apologist pretending that China has no ability to effect change in its own course. 3/8
It also conveniently ignores the fact that China’s repeated violations of international law and ongoing militarization of the region’s maritime commons is what galvanized the Quad into being. 4/8
Are we to believe that China is truly so weak and beleaguered? Potentially forced into an arms race, forced to coerce its neighbors and repress its citizens because four democratic states have chosen to form an undefined quadrilateral defense forum? 5/8
A Cold War doesn’t happen without two participants, taking two to tango, as it were. It is simply sad to continue with the limp ruse that China respects @ASEAN centrality and unity, while it does its damnedest to subvert the bloc. 6/8
Whether using corrupt leaders to weaken the bloc, the false promise of a South China Sea Code of Conduct, or any of the other myriad tools it has developed, China has proven to be no friend of @ASEAN and it is ridiculous to pretend otherwise. 7/8
Instead, perhaps the author should read @le2huong’s @ASPI_org work on @ASEAN perceptions of the #Quad, rather than do the CCP’s work for them. aspi.org.au/report/southea… 8/8
