If one tries to sum up former US President Donald Trump’s most strategically far-sighted security policy, the answer will be his clear recognition of and strong response to China’s significant strategic threats to the US and the formulation of the “Indo-Pacific Strategy” that integrates with and strengthens India’s geostrategic status. Trump’s strategic maneuver was in marked contrast with the wishy-washy “Asia-Pacific Rebalancing Strategy” pursued by former President Barack Obama, as incumbent President Joe Biden’s recent continuation and strengthening of Trump’s Indo-Pacific Strategy will testify.

The Biden administration has not only inherited the term “Indo-Pacific” but also maintained the Trump administration’s phrase “Free and Open” Indo-Pacific in place of the original “Security and Prosperity.” As things stand, Biden’s “Indo-Pacific 2.0” revolves on two axes, namely the enhancement of bilateral alliances and the strengthening of the multilateral “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad).”

In terms of consolidating bilateral relations with traditional Inco-Pacific allies, President Biden maintains a hardline tone against China. In the “two-versus-two talks” between top US and Japanese diplomatic and defense officials held in Tokyo yesterday (16th March), the two sides focused on the growing challenges and threats posed by China to the Indo-Pacific region. In the joint statement issued afterward, the two sides said, “the US and Japan are committed to pushing back if necessary when China attempts to threaten regional stability.” During the meetings between the heads of defense, the two sides agreed on the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. That is the greatest breakthrough of the US-Japan alliance since the meetings between US and Japanese foreign and defense ministers in 2005 and 2006, during which they designated the protection of peace in the Taiwan Strait as a common strategic goal. Now the US-Japan alliance has not only singled out China but also stressed the importance of peace in the Taiwan Strait.

Before their visits to Asia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote in the Washington Post, stressing that China abused human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, systematically eroded autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan and made marine claims in the South China Sea that violated international law. The US looks to create “multiplier effects” with its international allies and forge an alliance against China, they wrote. They also reiterated the Biden administration’s effort to transform and rebuild US alliances to ensure its relations with allies can be as stable and effective as possible and emphasized the importance of unity between democracies in addition to the bilateral relations that the US builds with its allies. The article basically set the tone for the joint statement after the US-Japan meeting.

As for multilateral security frameworks, Biden has, in a recent virtual conference, elevated the Quad meeting between the US, Japan, Australia, and India from the ministerial level during the Trump era to the head-of-state level. The four leaders have also agreed to hold face-to-face talks by the end of 2021.

Cooperation between the four Quad nations dates back to their joint emergency aid for the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Southern Asia. It gradually developed into a forum, or a loose alliance, led by the four major democracies in the Indo-Pacific region. The then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe firstly proposed the idea of a strategic dialogue between the four countries in 2006, and then advocated the idea of “Asia’s Democratic Security Diamond”. Since the Quad was first held in May 2007 on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum, it has been regarded as a mechanism for informal strategic dialogues. It has been convened every one or two years irregularly.

In November 2017, the Quad in the Indo-Pacific region was reconvened during the ASEAN Summit. It was convened twice in both 2018 and 2019. But it was not until 2019 that the four countries elevated the dialogue to the ministerial level. Since the meeting between foreign ministers in Tokyo in October 2020, the four countries, in response to China’s expansion, have been actively building a regional security structure and forming a close security partnership, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the balance of power in the “peaceful and open Indo-Pacific region”.

The Quad nations, comprised of four democracies (including the world’s two biggest democracies) and Western countries (Japan is regarded as a Western country in Asia), share the same fundamental values and institutions of Western democracies. As for language, the Quad consists of three English-speaking countries, namely the US, Australia, and India. Finally, in terms of military strategy, it consists of four countries whose specific sea power and land power complement each other. The US, Japan and Australia are traditional sea power countries. The Indian subcontinent is located at the “fulcrum” of the Eurasian continent and the middle point of the Indian Ocean coast. Therefore, India is a country of half-sea power and half-land power. An alliance between the four nations can be a strong response to China’s proposal of a Maritime Silk Road linking Europe and Asia in its “Belt Road Initiative”.

At a time when the US and China have become hostile powers caught up in intensive competition, India could determine the course of geopolitics in Eurasia in the 21st century. The key to the success of the Quad dialogue lies in India. This is because the US has established long-term and stable military alliances with Australia and Japan respectively, while India is contiguous with China and has to deal with China’s encroachment of its territory on its own. The Quad is valuable to the US only with India’s participation. In recent years, the disagreements and conflicts between India and China over the Belt and Road Initiative, terrorism and nuclear weapons have gradually changed the strategic balance between the two major powers on the Asian continent. As a result, India’s attitude to the Quad has changed from negotiation to active cooperation.

However, whether India will loosen its traditional foreign policy of no alliances and “submitted” to the leadership of the US remains uncertain. Currently, the Quad remains an important platform for strategic communication and coordination between the four countries. The four-nation strategic dialogue platform hosted by Biden recently focuses on security, fight against the pandemic, technology, and cooperation. Each of these aspects is aimed at China. In terms of security, it is about maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific and regional stability with allies. In terms of fighting the epidemic, it involves funding India’s production of vaccines to curb China’s vaccine diplomacy. In terms of science and technology, the four countries have joined forces to reorganize the rare earth supply chain. Finally, the leaders of the four countries will work together in unanimous opposition to China’s unilateral change of the status quo.

In the context of the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy, Taiwan, though not a bilateral or multilateral ally of the US, is a democracy and an international partner. In Biden’s National Security Strategic Guidance published in early March, he emphasizes the US’s support for Taiwan, a major democracy as well as a key economic and security partner. It is foreseeable that Taiwan will play a crucial role in global security, since its security interests highly overlap with those of the US and other civilized and progressive democracies in terms of Taiwan’s enhancement of democratic values, its supply of key semiconductor technology and public health equipment and its geographical location at the strategic forefront of the First Island Chain in the Western Pacific. All in all, Biden’s Indo-Pacific Strategy 2.0 is a bilateral and multilateral strategic framework characterized by alliances with remote powers and offensives against proximate ones as well as the multi-angle onslaught against a single target. The major “anti-Communist, China-resistant, and pro-Taiwan” strategy will continue.

(Lin Tai-ho, Professor of the Institute of Strategic and International Affairs, National Chung Cheng University)

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