Washington, July 30 -- Foreign ministers from the Quad nations- Australia, India, Japan, and the United States- convened in Washington earlier this month and unveiled a robust strategy designed to counteract China's coercive influence in the Indo-Pacific, as reported by The Japan Times earlier this month.

The leaders launched the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, explicitly targeting China's monopolistic dominance of rare earths and critical materials vital to defence and high-tech industries. The joint statement affirmed their determination "to uphold a region free from coercion" and oppose "any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion".

In language thinly veiled yet unmistakably directed at Beijing, ...