Overall, Xi Jinping has therefore achieved mixed success in securing China’s maritime flank. China has had a number of strategic diplomatic successes, but the rise of the Quad has crystallized geopolitical resistance to the sustained weight of China’s economic and foreign policy assertiveness into a focused institutional response. If the Quad—or a Quad-Plus—was in the future to attract both Korea and (a more remote prospect) Indonesia, this would add considerably to the grouping’s overall strategic heft and present a serious challenge to China’s ambitions.
