-Experts say China can retaliate economically if red line crossed
BEIJING: China should keep a close watch on the Indo-Pacific region and mark its red lines, Chinese experts said on Thursday, right before the third Quad meeting of the US, Japan, India and Australia since 2020 to be held on Thursday morning (ET), also the first virtual Quad meeting under the Biden administration.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price announced on Wednesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and India in the Quad framework, the NATO’s Indo-Pacific version normally regarded as the counter-China efforts initiated by Japan and the US.
The spokesperson disclosed that topics like coordinating COVID-19 response and climate change will be discussed, as well as “to advance our shared goals in the free and open Indo-Pacific,” Reuters reported on Thursday. Japan hosted the latest Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in October 2020 and the four countries held a joint large-scale naval drill, “Exercise Malabar 2020,” in November. The virtual meeting also came after a “comprehensive” conversation between Blinken and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar on February 9, reaffirming to enhance partnership across the Indo-Pacific. “The Quad is the centerpiece of the so-called ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy,’ and the framework will play a greater role in the Biden administration’s efforts to contain China,” Ni Feng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday. Ni said that the Biden administration has inherited the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the Trump era. Ruan Zongze, executive vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times when that US President Joe Biden, who is also familiar with the “Asia rebalancing” policy from the Obama era, is good at using a variety of mechanisms and tools to contain China’s peaceful development with its allies.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
