Is the Quad finished?

Since the late 1990s, Australian governments have been considering how to make their neighbourhood, the Indo-Pacific, a stable and peaceful region. Australia has articulated the need for a balance of power, between a rising China on the one hand and the liberal democracies of the region on the other. 

Australia has been particularly concerned about the risk of the Indo-Pacific being dominated by China – it could impose a kind of Asian Monroe doctrine on the region. In this environment, China would not only be able to subjugate Hong Kong, assert its sovereignty over the whole of the South China Sea, and incorporate Taiwan into the People’s Republic of China. But beyond that, countries of the region would be required – to use an ancient Chinese concept – to pay tribute to China, and China would decide the terms of engagement between the nations of the region. 

To try and contain China, in the last couple decades, Australia has worked to consolidate relations between the United States and western allies in the region.