China: Sharp Criticism After QUAD Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo

It didn’t take long for China to react very negatively to the outcome of the QUAD group foreign ministers’ meeting held in Tokyo on July 29. QUAD is a coalition of four countries that includes the USA, Japan, India, and Australia. The ministerial meeting resulted in a joint statement that very unequivocally condemned “China’s military activities in the South China Sea.”

A statement issued by China’s Foreign Ministry emphasized that QUAD “recites the slogan of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, but engages in nothing but alarmism and fomenting antagonism and confrontation, hindering the development of countries in this part of the Earth.” And, as Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, the quartet is moving “in a direction opposite to the prevailing trend of achieving peace, development, cooperation, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.” For Beijing, forces outside the region are “the most serious threat and challenge to regional peace and stability.”

While China and the Philippines reached a diplomatic agreement a few days ago to put an “end” to the decade-long dispute over the territoriality of the Second Thomas Shoal Atoll, the diplomatic chiefs of the four QUAD countries expressed “grave concern over the situation in the South China Sea, where territorial disputes between China and the Philippines have been raging, culminating in several accidents between vessels of the two countries in recent months.” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he was concerned about “militarization and coercive and intimidating maneuvers in the South China Sea.”

The QUAD meeting was preceded by talks between the US and Japanese foreign and defense ministers, during which they announced a decision to strengthen military-technical cooperation between Washington and Tokyo. For China and Russia, it is the USA and Japan that are escalating military threats in the Pacific.

The Japanese government stands in solidarity with the West’s hostile actions towards Russia, and this destructive policy cannot but have a negative impact on relations between Moscow and Tokyo. As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told at a press conference, “Japanese political leaders are dominated by figures who do not support the development of normal bilateral relations: unfortunately, the current Japanese government fully supports the hostile actions of the so-called collective West towards Russia, and this harms our bilateral relations.” Peskov also noted that the Japanese government “does not hesitate to exert intimidating pressure on those who seek ways to restore normal contacts with Russia.” Muneo Suzuki, a member of the House of Councilors of Japan, is now in Moscow. He has already been received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko and will then hold meetings with Rosrybolovstvo representatives. Suzuki is the first and, so far, the only representative of Japan’s political establishment to visit Moscow since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The previous visit took place in October 2023, when the Japanese politician held a series of talks in the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament). The title of The Japan Times newspaper article devoted to the visit is illustrative: “Pro-Moscow Japanese lawmaker Muneo Suzuki visits Russia.”

Finally, in response to QUAD’s anti-Russian and anti-Chinese initiatives, the Russian Defense Ministry informed its Japanese counterpart that two Tu-95MS strategic bombers of the Russian Air Force had performed a training flight in the Sea of Japan. In a flight lasting more than ten hours, the long-range bombers, capable of carrying bombs and nuclear missiles, were escorted by Su-35S and Su-30Sm fighters. The Russian ministry emphasized that “the flight took place in accordance with international rules for the use of airspace.”