By Wang Qiang
According to a recent disclosure by a Japanese government source, the meeting of foreign ministers under the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the "Quad") between the US, Japan, India and Australia is scheduled to be held on January 21 in the US. Since Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Takeshi Iwaya, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong have confirmed their attendance at President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony on January 20, the likelihood of a "Quad" foreign ministers' meeting is very high.
It is worth noting that the "Quad" may not be limited to holding meetings this January. According to prior disclosures from the Japanese side, the US, Japan, India, and Australia are also set to conduct their first joint coast guard training this month. This is seen as yet another new move by the "Quad" to contain China, so it cannot simply be regarded as maritime law enforcement security cooperation among multiple countries. On the contrary, this move further demonstrates that the "Quad" has become a political tool for the US to engage in so-called major-country competition. However, as the Joe Biden administration's term nears its end, whether this joint training can proceed as scheduled remains uncertain.
The "Quad" summit held in the US on September 22 last year used the strongest language to address China's activities in the so-called Indo-Pacific region and expressed grave concerns over the situations in the South China Sea and East China Sea, including grave concerns over the so-called militarization of islands and reefs and the "coercive actions" in the South China Sea. The joint coast guard training operation disclosed by the Japanese side for January is one of the cooperative initiatives established during this summit. It is believed that this is a clear signal of pressuring China, indicating that this mechanism, as a political legacy of Joe Biden, has completely removed its disguise and shifted its focus entirely toward major-country competition.
In fact, the establishment of the "Quad" itself was intended to contain China. Entirely led by the US, the mechanism serves as a strategic tool for the Joe Biden administration to more effectively push its allies to confront China both regionally and globally. Although Japan, India, and Australia have their own interests in joining the Quad, the nature of this mechanism in serving the strategic needs of the US is very clear.
A tool called the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) was created at the beginning of the establishment of the "Quad'. Using the tool, they extensively vilified Chinese fishing vessels, accusing them of illegal fishing, resource and environmental destruction, and other issues. They attempted to demonize China's maritime activities by attaching negative labels, damaging China's international image. Its ultimate intention is to create panic and anxiety about China in the international community, thereby undermining the legitimacy of China's maritime activities, fracturing the relationships between China and other Asia-Pacific countries, and paving the way for the establishment of an open quasi-military alliance system based on intelligence sharing.
The four-country maritime situational awareness intelligence exchange provides a natural foundation for their naval military intelligence sharing. Moreover, they can use public security products as a cover to draw other countries and regions into the fold. The maritime intelligence network they are building, along with the planned joint coast guard operations as a new initiative, forms a comprehensive challenge to China's maritime activities.
The US Coast Guard is a quasi-military force that operates under the US Navy during wartime, while its peacetime maritime activities fall within the "gray zone" of intervention. To elevate the level of intervention, it must resort to exaggerating and amplifying the sources of threats. Admiral John Aquilino, Former Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, once smeared that China's fishing fleet should be viewed as a "maritime militia", but it is clear that his narrative has found little traction. Other countries are highly displeased with the US deploying coast guard vessels in actions that carry a strong military undertone, which they perceive as crossing the line. This is also why the US Coast Guard has been eager to operate in the Western Pacific with raised rhetoric, yet it has not achieved the expected outcomes after many years. The coast guards of Japan, India, and Australia lack the capability for distant-water operations, so they can only focus on their own surrounding areas and it is not an easy task for them to unite and show force in other seas of the Asia-Pacific.
(The author is a researcher specializing in national security strategy.)
Editor's note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
