US too aggressive in building cliques

With the United States increasingly counting on its allies to help it get the jump on China, the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network would appear to be a ready-made and willing posse to enforce its will.

Indeed, the antagonistic behavior of the Five Eyes, which groups Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom with the US, has drawn strong opposition from China, which sees the mechanism as being full to the brim with an outdated Cold War mentality.

Yet Washington’s seeming willingness to lead the other members by the nose into confrontation with China is now starting to cause some consternation.

When New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told reporters on Monday that her country was “uncomfortable” with expanding the scope of the Five Eyes, it should be perceived as a timely warning to other members of the group about what the US is potentially leading them into.

Under the direction of the US, the world’s oldest intelligence network, which dates back to the end of World War II, has raised the banner of human rights issues in recent months. In November, the foreign ministers of the Five Eyes issued a statement, pointing an accusing finger at China’s lawful decision to disqualify certain Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Legislative Council members. In another blatant interference in China’s internal affairs, members of the intelligence alliance have also made provocative remarks on the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region over so-called human rights issues.

And the intelligence alliance had also shown signs of expanding its scope to embrace foreign policy and foreign trade. In December, the Five Eyes members reportedly held talks on jumping to Australia’s defense in its trade skirmish with China through trade actions, such as sanctions.

Needless to say, each time the other Five Eyes members dance to the tune of the US, they have to make major adjustments to their policies toward China and shoulder the subsequent consequences.

As a country that is known for distancing itself from international conflicts and being committed to maintaining a healthy and stable relationship with China, New Zealand must have found it difficult to keep pace with the alliance’s increasing hostility toward China, which has become a destabilizing factor undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

By showing a soft paw toward China in comparison with the increasing enmity harbored by the other members of the alliance, New Zealand has highlighted the extremes to which the US is going in its bid to contain China and set an example to both the alliance and other US allies on exercising caution when the US tries to push them too far.

Mutual respect and non-interference, norms governing international relations, other than forming small cliques targeting a third party, should be the key for countries around the world when interacting with others.