The Five Eyes intelligence alliance between the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, has been accused of being an ‘axis of white supremacy’ by a newspaper aligned to the Chinese government.
An editorial in the Global Times made the claims. The newspaper acts as an English mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party and is published daily. A Chinese edition is also published.
The editorial accused the alliance of being a ‘US-centred, racist, and mafia-styled community’ with the goal of ‘stifling’ the development of 1.4 billion Chinese people.
It also accused the group of no longer simply being about the sharing of intelligence but that it had a ‘strong sense of civilisation superiority’ and was targeting China and Russia. It also said that the world must work to ensure that global diplomacy not be ‘hijacked by a fake international community with an axis of white supremacy’.
Tensions between a number of countries in the West and China have been rising for some time. The Canadian House of Commons recently passed a non-binding motion which accused the Chinese government of committing genocide against the Uighur people in western China. It also proposed moving next year’s Winter Olympics from Beijing, where it is scheduled to be held. Relations are also strained between Australia and China, with the former calling for an investigation into the Covid-19 pandemic and its origins. The implication is that China may have been negligent in not preventing the virus from escaping Wuhan. The US, despite a change in leadership recently, has also continued to push a fairly hard line against China.
(Photograph of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern: Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images file)