Is the Five Eyes, an Anglo-Saxon clique of intelligence sharing and WWII relic, opening up to more members? US politicians have been hyping it up from time to time. A most recent proposal came from Republican Congressman Ruben Gallego, chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on special operations and intelligence, who argued that the Five Eyes needs updating to better keep tabs on China.

According to reports, Gallego introduced an amendment in the National Defence Authorisation Act for the year 2022 to identify the benefits and risks to add Japan, South Korea, India and Germany to the Five Eyes network, turning it into Nine Eyes. Yet no matter how Gallego wraps up his proposal, his idea only shows the ignorance and senselessness of US politicians like him, who are dealing with national strategies as children's play.

Obviously, Gallego has no idea about what the Five Eyes is. The pact started from the intelligence relationship between the US and the UK during WWII, who formalized such ties with the UKUSA Agreement, officially enacted in 1946. In following years, Canada, Australia and New Zealand also joined the club. Given the intelligence documents shared among the members are marked SECRET— AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US EYES ONLY, the term Five Eyes gradually became the group's popular shorthand.

It is not a formal alliance, but more of a special group of spies coordinating, or doing business with each other.

In the Five Eyes, its members share a broad range of classified intelligence. The existence of the club has thus another significance: All four countries, apart from the US, will not ever pose a threat to the US. They will never catch up with or surpass the US in any way, as they are basically transparent in Washington's eyes.

Due to the exposure of the US' PRISM surveillance program, the Five Eyes, which had barely been mentioned in the past decades, has been brought to light on the global arena. The news that the US National Security Agency bugged former German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone for more than 10 years once sent huge shockwaves across German society. What could Berlin possibly think when Washington formally loops it in to a spy network? It may sound like an invitation to Germany's intelligence community: Join us and let's spy on your top leader together!

As a matter of fact, Germany maintains pragmatic toward its China policy. Its navy frigate Bayern docked in Tokyo, Japan on Friday. Yet before that, Germany had been communicating with China over Bayern's route. Berlin is well aware that sending the frigate to the Indo-Pacific region is just a move to make its ally, Washington, look good. But it won't help the US seek profit by putting itself in risks like Australia.

South Korea, in the eyes of the US, is a vassal state. Washington tends to believe that it has only rights, but no obligations, in Seoul. In other words, the US wants intelligence from South Korea. But the US has no plan to allow South Korea to gain classified information from it. It will never treat South Korea on an equal footing.

It is the same with Japan. There is one difference though. If such a negotiation over the case really takes place between the US and Japan, Tokyo will definitely seek to let Washington loosen its control over Japan's Pacifist Constitution. Japan seems obedient now. This is because it finds itself having its neck stepped on by the US. Once the pressure from Washington relaxes, Japan will highly likely sink its teeth into the US. At that time, it will not deem the change as goodwill from the US, but only a sign that the bully boss is finally failing.

As for India, it has little to offer to Washington while feeling a strong sense of pride for itself. What could it bring to the Five Eyes?

As Gallego named the four countries and continues to clamor time and again that he means it, he is laying bare that he and his committee knows nothing about Five Eyes and the current international politics.

He seems like a brainless man who cannot control urges to press random buttons in front of him one by one, without knowing what they are, and what consequences could be brought. Expanding the Five Eyes in the way he suggests will not make the clique stronger, but will only dilute its strengths.

The core of US hegemony is hard power. This enables the country to use various means to intimidate, conquer and punish its rivals or opponents for its own interests. But now, the US is calculating whether to expand the Five Eyes to Nine Eyes to deal with China. What does this mean? The only answer is: US ability is falling short of its ambitions. US allies will have more doubts about its future strength.

Where is the US headed when ignorant US elites like Gallego steer the wheel? If the US falls, it is not because of China. America will knock itself out. Indeed, with more and more elites like Gallego, we may be witnessing the true twilight of US hegemony.

*Full text link:

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1238535.shtml