A hot mic picked up President Joe Biden making candid remarks about China’s behavior on Saturday during the latest Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) summit , his last as U.S. president.
Speaking with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in his home state of Delaware, Biden stated: “China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region. It is true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South Asia, and the Taiwan Straits.”
China has continued to press its expansive claims in the South China Sea, where its coast guard has employed water cannons and rammed Philippine vessels near Sabina Shoal, the latest flashpoint in the territorial dispute between Beijing and the U.S. defense treaty ally.
Additionally, China has also continued to challenge Japanese control over the uninhabited Spratly Islands with its expanding, heavily armed coast guard.
Regarding Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden remarked, “He’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian returned fire during Monday’s regular press conference, accusing the U.S. of trying to “hype up the China threat” to contain and exclude Beijing, and using the Quad to maintain “U.S. hegemony,” according to state media.
(Left to right) Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 21. After the cameras stopped recording, Biden was overheard telling the group that China was “testing” them across the Indo-Pacific region.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
“The U.S. side keeps saying that it is not aimed at China, but the first topic of the summit is China, and the summit talks about China everywhere,” Lin stated, accusing Washington of “nonsense with open eyes” and calling on the U.S. to abandon its “obsession” with hegemony.
The Quad, a strategic alliance of the U.S., India, Japan, and Australia, often has China as a focal point, though Biden has emphasized that its goal is to uphold international law and foster regional cooperation, rather than directly contain China.
Ryan Hass, a scholar with the Brookings Institution think tank, commented on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, saying that Biden’s remarks were “logically consistent with the way his administration has been approaching the U.S.-China relationship.” Hass added, “I expect the comments would be reassuring to allies and partners, and unsurprising to Beijing.”
However, Justin Bassi, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, expressed disappointment in the Quad summit’s joint statement, which did not mention China directly.
“A disappointing Quad statement. Less statement and more abdication of responsibility on the key regional security threat,” Bassi wrote in an X post, pointing out that the Quad leaders did not call out China by name in their joint statement Saturday, instead saying they were “seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas.”
Diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing remain tense, but eased somewhat after Biden met with Xi near San Francisco during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
The two leaders discussed contentious issues and agreed to resume high-level military communications after Beijing initiated a freeze following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s trip to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, in 2022.
A number of new initiatives emerged from Saturday’s talks, including a first-of-its-kind “Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission,” where Indian, Japanese, and Australian coast guard personnel will sail aboard a U.S. Coast Guard ship to improve the interoperability of the four nations’ maritime forces.
