1) Russia's deflection of Chinese complaints against the early delivery of S-400 missiles to India is a massive diplomatic reality shock for China. Russia will deliver S-400 Missile Defence Systems a year early to India, despite strong objections from Beijing. China had been pressuring Moscow against the early shipments. Genuinely surprised with this, given how pragmatic Russia has been in recent years in balancing its ties with different allies.
Shows two things:
~Russo-Indian cooperation has moved well beyond the old Cold-War alliance
~China's influence on Russia is massively exaggerated
If not Russia, then who is standing in China's corner of the ring, other than Pakistan and NKorea?
2) US has passed the National Defence Authorisation Act & will be training Indian, Australian and Japanese pilots in Guam, an island which could well serve as a launchpad for future aerial attacks on the Chinese mainland.
3) Myanmar has called out China for arming terror groups and asks the world to help.
4) Australia is increasing its defence spending by up to 40% over the next 10 years.
5) At a time when both India and Japan are facing hostility from China, warships from Indian Navy and Japanese Navy conducted a joint exercise in the Indian Ocean.The Naval exercise took place when there is growing talk of the possibility of emergence of a joint front of India, Japan, US and Australia to counter the threat of the Chinese Navy in the region.
6) The United States government is considering banning TikTok because it views the hugely popular social media app as a security threat, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
QUAD is FINALLY doing what it was supposed to.