U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and Australian Primer Minister Scott Morrison participate in the Quad Leaders Summit at the White House in Washington, DC on September 24, 2021. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

In Washington this week, the leaders of the "Quad"—the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India—met to address a major threat to the Indo-Pacific: China's flagrant violations of the norms, values, and rule of law that underpin the region's stability and prosperity. Following on the heels of the new AUKUS  partnership between the U.S., UK, and Australia, the U.S. is taking serious steps to shore up security and economic cooperation in this critical region. 

In his new report, "Visions of Order in the Indo-Pacific: Strengthening Alliance-Based Security Cooperation," Hudson Senior Fellow Jim Przystup examines the strategies being developed by the region's democracies to counter China's provocations. See key quotes below, and don't miss John Lee's CNN interview on Australia's growing role as a global model of resistance to Beijing.

Key Quotes

1. Connecting the Dots: China's Bullying Behavior

In 2010, the Japan-China “Mutually Beneficial Strategic Partnership” encountered the force of Chinese nationalism.  To protest Japan’s seizure of a Chinese fishing boat in the Senkaku Islands, Beijing cut off rare earth exports to Japan, slowed customs procedures, issued tourist guidance against travel to Japan, and cut off high-level political and ministerial contacts.  Two years later, in response to Japan’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands, Beijing allowed anti-Japanese protests to gather strength across the country, resulting in significant damage to Japanese commercial property and injury to Japanese residents. 

In 2013, Beijing initiated construction of and later militarized artificial islands in the South China Sea, thereby contravening what U.S. officials had understood to be a commitment President Xi had made to President Obama.  And, in 2016, China disregarded the ruling of the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration in the South Seas Arbitration Case, which denied China’s assertion of historic rights within its claimed nine-dash line.  China’s former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and State Councilor Dai Bingguo dismissed the decision as “nothing but a piece of paper.”

In 2014, China’s state-owned China National Offshore Oil Company initiated unilateral exploration in an area south of the Paracel Islands, an area claimed by Vietnam as being within its exclusive economic zone.  To protest, Hanoi sent into the area patrol ships and fishing boats, which Chinese coast guard ships water-cannoned and rammed.  To date China has continued to engage in confrontations with Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia over natural resources.

2. Committed US Engagement is Key to the Quad's Success

The rapidly evolving Quad presents an opportunity to demonstrate U.S. leadership, in conjunction with Indo-Pacific democracies, to advance shared values and principles, and build support for a rules-based order in the region and beyond. 

The future success of the Quad will require concerted efforts to address the challenges now facing the region.  Today, this means building an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Over the long-term, this will require committed engagement to address the region’s critical needs—connectivity, both high-quality physical and digital infrastructure; climate change, and supply chain resilience.

3. The US Must Reengage on Indo-Pacific Trade Policy

The Indo-Pacific has moved on to structure a rules-based trade order—without the United States, whose absence in these rule-making trade bodies points glaringly to a missing piece in U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. Re-engaging international as well as regional trade structures stands as a major challenge to the Biden administration. Only by participating can the United States advance its interests and enhance its standing.

The United States should be inside rather than outside international institutions that develop, should actively engage in World Trade Organization reform and give serious consideration to joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

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