The Voice of America, in an article about why the Quad met in Washington this week, claims that the aims of the Quad are to create an open and free Indo-Pacific. Biden, in a prepared remark, suggested his Administration believes “Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimise the turbulence in China’s diplomatic relationships, and he’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space”.
All this is probably true. As a result of US economic coercion, restrictions, sanctions and aggression in the region, China definitely has more challenges than it would otherwise have – in other words, China’s problems are, to a great extent, caused by the lack of open and free trade and an almost diplomatic vacuum with certain nations created by the US.
However, Biden went on to say, “…in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interests”. In all fairness, is there a country in the world that doesn’t pursue its own interests? The US uses members of the G7, the Quad, the Five Eyes and NATO to aggressively pursue their interests at the expense of every country they have a relationship with – ask Japan if it benefitted from the Plaza Accord, ask Germany if it is benefitting from its relationship with the US, ask the UK if it is in a win-win relationship with its most “special” partner. More importantly, ask Australians if they will benefit from AUKUS, a trilateral arrangement designed to pressure China, to the great benefit of the US and at huge cost (and risk) to Australia.
It’s clear that the Quad are not looking for anything remotely like an open and free Pacific; they are looking to further contain and incite China.
This begs the question, why does China need to be contained? Well, according to the Quad, it’s because half the world’s population lives in the region. That’s true, but half of them are Chinese and don’t need external protection. Also, according to the Quad, the region makes up two-thirds of the world’s economy; that is not true, the region makes up about 36% of the world’s economy but more than half of that is from China.
Further, according to VOA, the People’s Republic of China “views democratically governed Taiwan as part of China”. Here’s some startling news for the Voice of America – so does the US, so does the UN, and in fact, so does the government of Taiwan. China does not “view Taiwan as part of China”, it’s a global, historical and unarguable fact that Taiwan is part of China.
While the US is attempting to drive wedges between China and its neighbours, let’s consider the reality: the King of Malaysia was in China this week and quite adamantly stated that his country would work with China to resolve issues. The relationship has faced challenges, but is now very much back on an even footing according to the Malay Mail. Vietnam’s recently appointed leader was in China just a month ago and he described bilateral ties as a “top priority in Vietnam’s external policy” and called his trip to China “the affirmation of the Party and the Vietnamese Government to value the relation with China”. Don’t forget, millions of Vietnamese died in a war started by the US within the lifetime of most readers. The irony of the US invading Vietnam to prevent Communism spreading and now wanting the Communist victors in that war to side with them against their Communist neighbours is not lost on most people.
In a recent statement released by the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, a spokesperson said: “For its own geopolitical interests, the US has repeatedly meddled in and provoked the maritime issues between China and the Philippines. On the one hand, it has encouraged and supported the Philippines’ infringement and provocations in the South China Sea, and even blatantly supported the Philippines by threatening to invoke the US-Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty at every turn.”
In other words, whether you believe it or not, China believes the escalation of tensions rests with the US and Philippines. Of course, there are people who choose not to believe this; perhaps they could explain why there were no major tensions under President Rodrigo Duterte — and an agreement to de-escalate, which the NY Times reported on in 2016 but which many media outlets attempt to deny existed — but now, with a US-supported president, who has a history of family corruption and US protection, there are great tensions.
According to an international professor of Law, Anthony Carty, there is a well-documented truth in the fact that China does have sovereignty over the region which is covered in his book The History and Sovereignty of the South China Sea Islands.
Biden suggested Xi was currently focused on domestic challenges, aiming to reduce diplomatic turbulence. Whether this is true or not, is a moot point but it is something that the US should desperately consider for its own situation.
The US is experiencing increasing poverty, declining life expectancy, and increasing costs with both income and income equality falling. Increasing suicide rates, gun deaths and murders, and a massive increase in drug-related problems are all unresolved and seemingly ignored domestic challenges.
China, for the record, has none of these problems. There are virtually no murders and very few drug problems; in a population of 1.4 billion and a zero tolerance legal environment, China saw only 53,000 arrests for drugs in 2022. Street crime is almost non-existent, even though the BBC reports a lack of statistics as a lack of honesty. As a long-term resident of China, I’ve never seen or even heard of a street crime affecting any one of my many hundreds of friends in dozens of cities for many years so I’m more inclined to believe the reality than willful misinformation presented by the BBC. Finally, China’s income has grown, albeit from a very low start but it is consistently growing while the income inequality gap is narrowing and the Chinese yuan buys more in China than the US dollar will buy in the States; in short, Chinese are much better off.
If Biden seeks an open and free Indo-Pacific, he does so while ignoring his own issues and at the great risk of chaos in his own country. Perhaps, with less than six months left in the job, he doesn’t see that as his concern. Meanwhile, Xi does what he does best. He manages China for the benefit of the vast majority of Chinese people and patiently avoids escalating international tensions where others attempt to incite them. If Biden truly seeks an open and free Indo-Pacific, he would do well to pull his troops out of the region.
Jerry Grey is a former British Police officer who was a general manager in a multi-national security company based in Australia for 17 years. He has lived, worked, travelled extensively and studied in China for almost two decades. He holds a Master Degree in cross cultural change management. Jerry Grey is a freelance writer living in Southern China's Guangdong province.
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