Nettled by QUAD summit, China says 'it will end nowhere'

Refusing to acknowledge the progress made by QUAD, Beijing said ït will "end nowhere" as it admitted the grouping was formed to counter its increasing influence and muscle flexing in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region, stated the report.

China's reaction comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison, US President Joe Biden and Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attended a summit last Friday.

Beijing is also displeased by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s comments that the four leaders discussed the challenges posed by China and that the security grouping of the four-members believed that they could outcompete “autocracy.”

China has taken a strong exception to this observation and alleged that the grouping was not only exaggerating "China threat" but also creating a rift between the countries in the region and inducing discord.

According to the HT report, in a regular briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian stated, "For some time, some countries have been exaggerating the so-called China threat, (or) China challenges, to drive a wedge among regional countries to sow a discord between their relations with China.

“What they have done is against the trend of times, which is peace, development and win-win cooperation and runs counter to the common aspirations of people in the region.”

.He went on to say, “They will gain no support and will end up nowhere.”

Zhao said that the motive of such platforms should be improvement of mutual understanding and trust and not  target or undermine the interests of third parties.

“Relevant countries should abandon the cold war mentality and ideological bias, do not form exclusive cliques and act in a way conducive to solidarity, unity, regional peace, and stability,” he added, the HT report quoted.

According to the report when Zhao was asked to comment on US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin's remark that the US and other QUAD members can deter China, he said, "In the era of globalisation, it is the practice of forming cliques against specific countries based on ideology, which is detrimental to the international order."

“They will gain no support and end up nowhere,” Zhao repeated.

In 2018, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi had said, “They (QUAD) are like the seafoam in the Pacific or the Indian Ocean: they may get some attention, but soon will dissipate."

However, in 2020 he had said Quad had become a “security threat” and a so-called Indo-Pacific “New NATO”.