The flowers bloom in two, one on each side.
The war in Eastern Europe seems to be on the verge of breaking out, but the Indo-Pacific region has not stopped at all, and the indisputable United States is behind it. In the face of the two strong competitors of China and Russia, it is not difficult to see that the United States is trying to engage in a "diplomatic dual-track strategy": on the one hand, it regards the Russian-Ukrainian crisis as a short-term focus, and on the other hand, it still regards Indo-Pacific affairs as the long-term core.
During the Obama administration, the United States noted that over the past two decades it had focused too much on containing Russia, leading to a weakening of its influence in East Asia. In order to maintain control over the world, especially the emerging Far East, Obama proposed a "pivot to the Asia-Pacific strategy", which was later upgraded to an "Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy".
But Mr. Obama's lack of toughness on the Far East has drawn widespread criticism from right-wingers in the United States. After Trump took office, in order to strengthen the containment of East Asia, India was also tied to the US chariot and further upgraded to the "Indo-Pacific Strategy". In 2019, the Trump administration officially and publicly released the "Indo-Pacific Strategy Report", which details the strategic objectives, major threats and a series of means to achieve the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.
Why did you pull India into the company? Because the United States is located east of the Pacific Ocean, the United States is not deterred enough in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans. With India, it is possible to form a one-west and one-east attack on the Far East, like a pair of pliers to firmly contain the Far East.
Recently, the United States has begun to gather a group of "small circles" of Asia-Pacific countries to carry out so-called containment attempts.
From the 9th to the 11th of this month, the foreign ministers of the United States, Japan, India and Australia gathered in Melbourne, Australia to hold the "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue". This so-called "dialogue" mainly explores how the US-led alliance can maintain a hegemonic existence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The meeting, called "Security Dialogue," is actually of little help to regional security, but it is just another move by the United States to strengthen containment, flaunt its might, and provoke the situation in the Indo-Pacific region, which is completely different from the peace tone of the recent global event initiative. There are two points that deserve our attention and prevention.
First, U.S. tensions in the Indo-Pacific have increased.
One detail worth noting is that Blinken is planning to visit Fiji after the conference, which is far from the theme of the so-called "security dialogue".
It turned out that not long ago, the Tonga volcano erupted, and China quickly and forcefully reached out to the Pacific island countries and won the recognition of these countries.
The United States is a country that is good at playing cards and engaging in conspiracies, and likes to announce its major strategies to the outside world, on the one hand, to win the support of the people and Congress, on the other hand, to cause deterrence pressure on opponents.
However, many people think that the United States only plays the open card, not the dark card, which is also unrealistic. The international political game is far more than conspiracy, and there are a large number of conspiracies. For example, will the "Five Eyes Alliance" in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand carry out a private plot to tell you?
At the end of the day, when the United States feels a serious threat, it will turn on "radio silence," no longer openly delivering true information to the outside world, and privately collude with allies to calculate opponents. And when the United States engages in more and more "small circles" and "closed-door meetings" on a certain local issue, it in turn shows that the tension in the United States is intensifying.
Second, this is another "zero-sum game" led by the United States.
The logic of "zero-sum game" is to win and lose, and if I want to win, you must lose. This is very different from the "positive sum game" under the logic of win-win and win-win. The United States has always believed in a "zero-sum game" and is uneasy about seeing any country develop and rise under the control of the United States, otherwise it will be afraid of becoming a loser.
Once we fall into such a logical trap, then there will be distortions in foreign policy. The "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue" mechanism was first proposed by Japan in 2007 and was originally intended to strengthen equal cooperation among the four countries. But after the United States joined, it gradually jumped from "equal collaborators" to "leaders", turning this dialogue mechanism into a small circle of containment in the Asia-Pacific region.
In fact, the "security" in the so-called "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue" refers to the security of the United States, not the security of Japan, India and Australia. For the sake of its own security, and even for its own hegemony, the United States did not hesitate to tie Japan, India, and Australia to the chariot.
It should be known that at this time, China is hosting an international sports event, and it is impossible for the United States not to know that this move will have unpleasant consequences. The United States itself is not afraid of it, but it has forced Japan, India, and Australia to "add to the blockage," which will inevitably lead to the three countries further reducing the foundation of trust in friendly cooperation with China.
It can be seen that the United States not only habitually adopts a "zero-sum game" mentality toward competitors such as China and Russia, but even cares only for itself and ignores others in cooperation with so-called "close partners" and "hardcore allies". The "boss" of the United States in these small circles is not well deserved, and if some countries have to follow the United States to the black, I am afraid that they will eventually suffer the consequences of their own.