Context: China accused the United States of trying to build an “Indo-Pacific NATO” using the Quad and its allies.
What is China’s Concern?
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China equated the U.S, Australia, India, Japan Quad grouping with the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance involving Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. and U.K. and the AUKUS (Australia-U.K.-U.S.) defence pact because of:
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US is strengthening the Five Eyes
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US is peddling the Quad
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US is putting together the AUKUS security partnership
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Tightening bilateral military alliances among Quad members
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China claimed that the real goal for the Indo-Pacific strategy is to establish an Indo-Pacific version of NATO.
Quad as the ‘Indo-Pacific NATO’
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Rise of QUAD is directly correlated with China’s continued rise and increasingly aggressive orientation in foreign policy.
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All Quad members see China sceptically:
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India: After border clashes with China and China’s long-standing alliance with Pakistan, India has become more assertive and comfortable with being in a “multi-aligned” arrangement.
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Australia: has become very concerned about Chinese influence in their country and consequently reversed much of their China policy.
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Japan: is extremely concerned about rising Chinese assertiveness in the East China Sea, especially around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Dao Islands.
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USA: identified China as an “adversary” of the country and entered into a trade war.
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However, Quad is not a military alliance in the way that NATO is. The most important difference between the two is a lack of a collective defence arrangement.
Suggestions:
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The Quad should engage other regional parties like South Korea and New Zealand in the future.
Conclusion:
While China views the Quad grouping as an Asian NATO, in reality, it is much different from NATO. Without a treaty, a structure or a secretariat, the Quad is based on broad-based cooperation on multifarious domains such as vaccines, technology and maritime security.