Biden Tells Quad Leaders at Summit China Is ‘Testing Us’

President Joe Biden told leaders of Australia, India, and Japan that communist China is “testing us” with its aggression in the Indo-Pacific, a remark that was caught on a hot mic at a summit of the Quad alliance on Saturday.
The summit, which Biden hosted near his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
After they delivered their opening remarks before the press, Biden told his Quad counterparts that Beijing’s recent actions were a “change in tactic, not change in strategy.”
“China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region, and it’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia, and the Taiwan Straits,” Biden said.
“We believe [Chinese Communist Party leader] Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges to minimize the turbulence in China, diplomatic relationships, and he’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest.”
“We see this engagement as important for conflict prevention and crisis management amid our strategic competition,” Biden said. “We’ve secured some gains in U.S.–China bilateral relations that are important.”
Before the Quad summit, Sullivan downplayed the idea that the Quad’s focus is on China.
The leaders also agreed to a training initiative to help countries “monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behavior.”
“I expect the comments would be reassuring to allies/partners and unsurprising to Beijing,” Hass wrote.
“The risk is that an attack on the Philippines will lead to general conflict in the region,” Chang wrote, adding that such conflict will be a fight pitting the coalition of China, Russia, and North Korea against the United States and its partners.