China criticizes Quad

China’s New Foreign Minister, Qin Gang has described the US’s “Indo-Pacific Strategy” as an effort to “gang up” against Beijing in an apparent response to the joint statement issued by Quad foreign ministers of US, India, Japan and Australia during their recent meeting at New Delhi.

“The US’s ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ seeks to gang up to form exclusive blocs, stir up confrontation, and undermine regional integration,” Qin said at a press conference – his first after becoming minister – on the sidelines of China’s ongoing parliament session in Beijing.

The Quad statement did not mention China by name but several paragraphs in it, which mentioned South and East China seas, “militarisation of disputed features”were all clearly in context of Beijing’s expanding influence in the region.

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea but that claim is disputed by several Maritime neighbors including Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia besides Vietnam and Taiwan (which China says is a breakaway region); the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea are disputed between China and Japan.

Beijing has been repeatedly accused of militarizing uninhabited islands and reefs in the South China Sea despite several of them being disputed.

The Quad statement also said the four countries were “…Reaffirming our consistent and unwavering support for ASEAN centrality and unity, and the ASEAN-led architecture- including the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum”.