China says Quad, AUKUS are ‘cliques’ in U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy

China initially dismissed the Quad as “sea foam” but has recently stepped up its criticism of the grouping

China has equated the India, U.S., Australia, Japan Quad grouping with the AUKUS (Australia, U.K., U.S.) defence pact, calling both “exclusive cliques” part of the Biden administration’s “ill-intentioned” Indo-Pacific strategy.

The comments from Beijing this week are the first time that it has explicitly equated the Quad – whose members stress that it is not a military alliance – with the AUKUS defence pact, and reflect recently stepped up criticism from Beijing targeting the four countries.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, in Melbourne last week for the Quad Foreign Ministers meet, rejected that criticism, saying on Friday, “Our record, actions and stance are fairly clear and by criticising them repeatedly, it doesn’t make us less credible.”