Pompeo calls for united ‘Quad’ bloc on China in virus crisis

Bloomberg

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called on three other Indo-Pacific democracies to band together against coercion from China, in a bid to keep pressure on Beijing amid the coronavirus crisis rocking Washington.
The so-called Quad — also including Australia, India and Japan — began its second ministerial-level meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday, in an event expected to help firm up New Delhi’s participation in the group.
The first international gathering of ministers in Japan in almost a year demonstrates solidarity at a time when China is feuding with at least three of its members: Australia, the US and India.
Ahead of the event, Pompeo reiterated a charge made by the Trump administration that the coronavirus pandemic was made worse by a Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up. “The regime’s authoritarian nature led its leaders to lock up and silence the very brave Chinese citizens who were raising the alarm,” Pompeo told reporters, with the foreign ministers from the three other states by his side.
“As partners in this Quad, it is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the CCP’s exploitation, corruption and coercion,” he added.
For the host, newly installed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the meeting signals a willingness to continue some of his predecessor Shinzo Abe’s more hawkish security projects.
China has expressed concerns that the “Quadrilateral Initiative,” which Abe first helped promote more than a decade ago, is an attempt to form “exclusive cliques” and stoke a “new Cold War.”
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi avoided mention of China, the country’s biggest trading partner, in his comments. He said the Quad could help strengthen the international order and called on countries that share the vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific to join.
“What they’re doing is sending a message to the Chinese side that engagement is more important than assertiveness,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a former diplomat and visiting professor at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University. “It doesn’t mean that this is something to contain China. Nobody can contain China.”