The Quad summit "got the Chinese attention" on their seriousness in holding Beijing accountable for its actions in the Indo-Pacific region, according to US President Joe Biden.
Biden said, "I met with our allies and how we are going to hold China accountable in the region. Australia, India, Japan, United States, the so-called Quad, because we have to have democracies working together." "Apparently, it got the Chinese attention," he said.
Biden held the virtual summit with Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India, Yoshihide Sugo of Japan and Scott Morrison of Australia on March 12 during which they committed to a "region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic-values, and unconstrained by coercion." He warned that China's plan is to own the future through its investments in science and technology and said the US has to match it.
"We are in the midst of a Fourth Industrial Revolution of enormous consequence," he said.
At his first news conference as president, he made protection and expansion of democracy the high priority of his administration asserting that the competition of the 21st Century is between democracy and autocracy and that it "is what is at stake, not just in China. Look around the world".
He laid out the future of relations with China, which he described as one of competition rather than confrontation, with an emphasis on human rights.
His strategy to face up to the Chinese challenge, he said, is to reinforce ties with democracies in the effort to make China play by the international rules and to make the US ready for the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" for which Beijing was making heavy investments.
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