SCMP "China Repeatedly Inquires About South Korea's Quad Participation... Concerns Over Possibility of Joining"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that China has repeatedly inquired about South Korea's stance on joining the US-led "anti-China bloc" Quad (Quadruple Alliance).

On the 24th (local time), SCMP cited multiple diplomatic sources and reported that China perceives the Quad as a move to curb its influence and is concerned about the expansion of participating countries.

However, SCMP did not mention specific details of discussions between South Korea and China, stating that the South Korean government has consistently maintained that it has never been invited to join the Quad.

SCMP further cited experts who said that South Korea might abandon its strategic ambiguity regarding the Quad, warning that if South Korea joins, it could pose a significant security challenge to China in East Asia.

Chen Yong (千勇), Associate Professor at the Korean Studies Institute of Zhejiang University’s School of Humanities, said, "The US has been courting South Korea to integrate the US-Japan and US-Korea alliances into a trilateral alliance. If South Korea joins the Quad, it will ultimately become a trilateral alliance, which could become a small 'North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)' in Northeast Asia."

Bi Yingda (畢穎達), Deputy Director of the Northeast Asia Institute at Shandong University, said that if an anti-China coalition forms in Northeast Asia, it would put great pressure on China and increase the risk of military conflict, potentially leading to a confrontation between the North China-Russia bloc and the US-Japan-South Korea bloc over the Korean Peninsula issue.

Tang Xiaoyang (唐曉陽), Associate Professor of International Relations at Tsinghua University, said, "China is likely to be concerned that the Quad’s expansion could form a geopolitical encirclement from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean," and raised the possibility that 'Five Eyes' alliance countries such as the UK and Canada might express interest in participating.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.