Ahead of Quad summit, China says US’ Indo-Pacific strategy ‘bound to fail’

Beijing: China on Sunday launched a broadside against the Indo-Pacific strategy of the US ahead of the summit of Quad leaders in Japan, saying that it is “bound to fail” as it is vigorously promoted by Washington to “contain” Beijing.

The “Indo-Pacific strategy” is causing more and more vigilance and concern in the international community, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said while responding to a question at his joint press conference with Pakistan counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

This was Bilawal’s maiden visit to China after he took over as foreign minister following the fall of the Imran Khan-led government last month.

The US “Indo-Pacific Strategy” is bound to be a failed strategy, Wang said in the comments posted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on its website.

His comments came ahead of the Quad summit to be held in Tokyo on May 24 in which US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his counterparts from Japan and Australia will take part.

In September last year, President Biden hosted the first in-person meeting of Quad leaders in Washington.

China refers to the area as Asia-Pacific region and is averse to the Indo-Pacific strategic concept which has gained prominence during previous President Donald Trump’s tenure and vigorously pursued by his successor Biden.

The Asia-Pacific should become a plateau for peaceful development, rather than a geopolitical arena. Attempts to turn the Asia-Pacific into a bloc, NATO or Cold War will never succeed, Wang said.

The Quad grouping of the US, Japan, India and Australia focused on free and open Indo-Pacific while Beijing likens it to ‘Asian NATO’ aimed to contain its rise.

The US, India and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China’s rising military maneuvering in the resource-rich region.

China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. China also has territorial disputes with Japan in the East China Sea.

Wang said that the Indo-Pacific strategy “cooked up” by the US, in the name of “freedom and openness”, is keen on forming “cliques”. China claims that the grouping intends to “change China’s surrounding environment”. Its purpose is to contain China and make Asia-Pacific countries serve as “pawns” of the US hegemony, Wang said.

What is particularly dangerous is for the US to shed its disguise, provoke and play the “Taiwan” and “South China Sea” cards, he said.

“Try to mess up other regions and then mess up the Asia-Pacific region as well. Facts will prove that the so-called “Indo-Pacific Strategy” is in essence a strategy of creating division, inciting confrontation and undermining peace”, he said.

“No matter how much it is packaged or disguised, it will inevitably fail in the end. The people of this region should tell the US that the outdated Cold War scenario should never be repeated in Asia, and the turmoil and war that are taking place in the world should never happen in this region,” he said.