Biden Wants the ‘Quad’ to Counter China, But Unity Will Be a Test
(Clockwise from top left) U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on a monitor during the virtual Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) meeting at Suga’s official residence in Tokyo on March 12.
Photographer: Kyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
The fiery insults and recriminations at the U.S.-China summit in Alaska in mid-March showed there hasn’t been a quick reset on U.S.-China relations since President Joe Biden took office. Yet while Biden has sustained his predecessor’s tough approach, he’s thinking differently about how to confront Beijing.
Donald Trump sought to punish China through the brute force of unilateral tools such as tariffs and sanctions. The Biden administration is trying to amplify U.S. strength by banding more closely with allies across the region. Leading up to the talks in Alaska, U.S. officials choreographed a series of meetings with allies as part of an effort to corral them as a bloc. That included a virtual meeting of Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S., or the “Quad”; a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to South Korea and Japan; and a solo trip by Austin to India.