Biden presidency to lead FDI to Asia with tight China tack
Asia is set to secure a significant push for pandemic recovery from the incoming Biden administration......»»
EXPLAINER: What is APEC? Asia-Pacific leaders head to San Francisco
APEC has become a stage for strategic competition between the US and China, the world's two largest economies, and all eyes will be on an expected bilateral summit on the sidelines between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.....»»
Biden meets Chinese FM, urges cooperation on ‘global challenges’
US President Joe Biden met China's foreign minister for talks on Friday as the two countries seek to smooth ties ahead of a possible visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Biden told top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi that Washington and Beijing must "manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication," the White House said. With the Israel-Hamas conflict raging in the Middle East, Biden also "underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges," it added in a statement. Biden has invited Xi to San Francisco next month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but he has also stood firm on China in the run-up, keeping up a stream of sanctions and backing US allies in disputes with Beijing. Wang Yi has been on a two-day visit to Washington during which he also met US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The Chinese foreign minister had been expected to meet Biden too after Blinken met Chinese president Xi in Beijing in June, but it had not previously been confirmed. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had said on Thursday that this week's talks were a "milestone in that effort to keep the lines of communication open with the PRC (People's Republic of China)." Sullivan was going to raise "areas of concern" including China's behavior in the South China Sea, where it has been forcefully asserting its maritime boundaries. Stabilize Wang said after meeting Blinken on Thursday that he wanted to "stabilize US-China relations" and "reduce misunderstanding" after years of tensions. Acknowledging that differences will still come up, Wang said China would respond "calmly, because we are of the view that what is right and what is wrong is not determined by who has the stronger arm or the louder voice." Biden and Xi have had no contact since a meeting in Bali in November 2022. Relations have been tense for years between world's top two economies as they vie for influence in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, and as Beijing boosts cooperation with Russia in a bid to reduce US dominance. Tensions have been particularly high over Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing that over the past year has launched major military exercises in response to actions by US lawmakers. The United States and China have also traded barbs over the conflict in the Middle East, where Biden has been Israel's foremost ally. US officials have repeatedly spoken of creating "guardrails" with China to prevent worst-case scenarios and have sought, without success, to restore contact between the two militaries. Biden on Wednesday warned China of US treaty obligations to the Philippines, which said that Chinese vessels deliberately hit Manila's boats in dispute-rife waters -- an account contested by Beijing. Speaking alongside Australia's prime minister, a key Asia-Pacific ally, Biden vowed to compete with China "every way according to the international rules -- economically, politically, in other ways. But I'm not looking for conflict." The post Biden meets Chinese FM, urges cooperation on ‘global challenges’ appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
California governor presses China’s Xi on climate cooperation
California governor Gavin Newsom said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on climate cooperation at a meeting on Wednesday in Beijing, the latest in a string of visits to China by US politicians. The head of the US economic powerhouse state is on a week-long tour of China, which Newsom has said will focus on climate change. "We are not going to move needles on climate change unless the United States and China collaborate together," the governor, who has long been touted as a future presidential candidate, told reporters after meetings with Xi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. China and the United States are the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Newsom arrived in the southern semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong on Monday, where he held a talk on climate change. He then traveled to the neighboring city of Shenzhen, which has pioneered the use of renewable energy in public transport, touring an electric bus station. Newsom described his talks on Wednesday with Xi and Wang as "very productive". "Not only the MOUs in the last couple days but the fact that I'll be meeting with five governors tomorrow... engaging and advancing our collective efforts on low carbon green growth," Newsom told reporters, referring to memorandums of understanding signed with Chinese counterparts. Newsom said he also raised the issue of human rights with Wang and spoke with Chinese leaders about China's role in the fentanyl drug addiction crisis in the United States. Washington has imposed sanctions on China-based firms for producing and distributing chemicals used to make fentanyl, though Beijing has insisted the root of the opioid problem lies in the United States. "Governor Newsom's topics of discussion also included human rights violations and anti-democratic efforts in Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan, as well as David Lin, a California pastor who has been imprisoned in China since 2006," the governor's office said in a statement. String of visits Newsom's visit came amid a flurry of diplomacy between Beijing and Washington as the two sides seek to improve strained ties. Xi met with a group of US senators in Beijing earlier this month, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Foreign Minister Wang will pay a rare visit to Washington this week. Wang will be returning from a visit in June to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was the highest-ranking US official to travel to China since 2018. Blinken huddled for 11 hours with the top Chinese leadership including Xi. Diplomats say Wang will be expecting a similar meeting with President Joe Biden, who is in Washington this week. Biden, who last saw Xi last November on the sidelines of G20 talks in Bali, has invited the Chinese leader to travel next month to San Francisco where the United States will host an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Newsom on Wednesday said of Xi's potential visit that he was "very hopeful that he makes it". The post California governor presses China’s Xi on climate cooperation appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden says Xi meeting in November ‘a possibility’
US President Joe Biden said Friday he may meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November as Washington and Beijing push to reset ties, but added that nothing is scheduled yet. The leaders of the rival powers have not met in person or spoken for nearly a year, and tensions have mounted as an increasingly assertive China and the United States vie for global influence. "There has been no such meeting set up, but it is a possibility," Biden told journalists after reports that they were set to meet during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. Biden is set to host leaders from across the region on November 16 and 17 in the California city, and speculation has mounted that it could be the venue for a rapprochement. The White House had begun making plans for a meeting on the sidelines of the summit in a bid to stabilize relations, The Washington Post reported, quoting one official as saying it "it's pretty firm." Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to visit Washington at some point ahead of the APEC summit. Beijing however has not confirmed whether Xi will attend the summit or meet with his US counterpart. The White House has also declined to elaborate on a potential meeting with Xi. 'Disappointed' The last time Biden and Xi met was in November 2022 on the sidelines of a summit in Bali. Their talks were surprisingly cordial but relations then froze over again, and there has not even been a phone call since. Biden had said last month he was "disappointed" that Xi was not attending a G20 summit in New Delhi. He added that he was "going to get to see him," although he did not elaborate. Tensions between the United States and an increasingly assertive China have mounted as the world's two largest economies push for diplomatic, military and economic influence. Bilateral ties face a long list of problems, from trade disputes to Taiwan's future to the expansive Chinese presence in the South China Sea. But the United States has been working to restore a more effective working relationship, sending a series of senior officials to China in recent months despite continuing friction. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and China's Wang met in the Mediterranean island nation of Malta in mid-September in the latest attempt to reach out. The APEC forum will be a key test of whether their efforts are working, as the Asia-Pacific region is one of the main theaters where Beijing and Washington are going head-to-head. Biden has also been pushing to show that international groupings like the G20 and APEC can still deliver on problems including the economy and climate -- even when China is not involved. The post Biden says Xi meeting in November ‘a possibility’ appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden recognizes two Pacific nations in move to counter China
President Joe Biden said the United States officially recognized the Pacific nations of Cook Islands and Niue Monday, as he hosted regional leaders in a bid to wrest influence from China. The announcement came at the start of a summit with the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum, where US officials said the president was announcing a more assertive American stance in the region. Biden said in statements that Washington recognized the Cook Islands and Niue as "sovereign and independent" states and would establish diplomatic relations with both. The move would help maintain a "free and open Indo-Pacific region," said Biden. Biden added that the deals to recognize the two nations would also help curb illegal fishing, deal with climate change in a vulnerable region and boost economic growth. The Cook Islands and Niue together have fewer than 20,000 inhabitants but constitute a sprawling economic zone in the South Pacific. Both are self-governing nations in "free association" with New Zealand, meaning that their foreign and defense policies are in varying degrees linked to Wellington. After decades of being treated as a relative backwater, the South Pacific has become an important arena for competition between the United States and an increasingly assertive China. China has dramatically ramped up its economic, political and military footprint in the strategic ocean region. 'Assertiveness' There is "no question that there is some role that the PRC has played in all this," a senior White House official said on condition of anonymity, referring to China by the abbreviation of its formal name. China's "assertiveness and influence, including in this region, has been a factor that requires us to sustain our strategic focus." The forum brings together states and territories scattered across the Pacific Ocean, from Australia to sparsely populated micro-states and archipelagos. But China's influence will be felt through the absence of the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, now closely aligned with Beijing. Manasseh Sogavare, who was in New York last week to attend the UN General Assembly, did not extend his stay in the United States. "We're disappointed that he's chosen not to come to this very special summit," another White House official said. Biden had been due to follow up last year's inaugural summit with a meeting of Pacific leaders this May, in Papua New Guinea. But he cut short an Asia trip and returned stateside to address a debt-ceiling crisis. For the Washington summit, Biden has prepared a full program, kicking off with an afternoon of American football on Sunday. The leaders traveled by train to Baltimore, where they were guests of honor at an NFL game between the port city's Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts. Monday's agenda features meetings and a lunch with Biden. On Tuesday, the leaders will meet with top officials on climate and the economy, and spend time with US lawmakers. The post Biden recognizes two Pacific nations in move to counter China appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
US, Vietnam agree to deepen ties as China worries grow
US President Joe Biden hailed closer ties with Vietnam on Sunday as the two countries struck a deal to deepen cooperation, including on semiconductors, but said he was not aiming to contain China. The "comprehensive strategic partnership" with Hanoi is part of Washington's push to bolster its network of allies around Asia and the Pacific in the face of Beijing's rising influence. Biden accused Beijing of seeking to bend the international order to its will. "One of the things that is going on now is China is beginning to change some of the rules of the game, in terms of trade and other issues," Biden said. Sometimes to Beijing's chagrin, Washington has invested heavily in building alliances as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, including the Quad security dialogue with India, Australia and Japan, and the AUKUS pact with Britain and Australia. Biden said he wanted establish clear ground rules for relations. "I don't want to contain China. I just want to make sure we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it's all about," he said. Biden flew in to Hanoi straight from a G20 summit that failed to agree to a phase-out of fossil fuels and highlighted deep divisions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The US president said he had met Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 -- a meeting the White House had not announced -- and discussed "stability". Semiconductor deal Global supply chain shocks and fears about US reliance on China for strategic resources have further driven the push to boost ties with the likes of Vietnam. The new partnership includes an agreement on semiconductors, with the United States committing to help Vietnam develop its capabilities and expand production. There is also a section on rare earth minerals, which used in the manufacture of high-tech devices such as smartphones and electric car batteries. Vietnam has the world's second-largest deposits of rare earths after China and US officials say it has a key role to play as it looks to diversify and strengthen its supply chains. Biden moved last month to restrict US investment in Chinese technology in sensitive areas including semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. "This can be the beginning of even a greater era of cooperation," Biden said as he met Nguyen Phu Trong, the head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party and the country's paramount leader. "Vietnam and the United States are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time." The deal puts the United States on a par with China -- as well as Russia, India and South Korea -- at the top level of the Vietnamese hierarchy of diplomatic relations. Trong thanked Biden for his contribution to improving US-Vietnamese ties and said his country would work hard to implement the new agreement. Although it is careful to be seen as not taking sides between the United States and China, Vietnam shares US concerns about its neighbour's growing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea. However, The New York Times reported just ahead of Biden's visit that Vietnam was secretly arranging to buy arms from Russia in contravention of US sanctions. The report cited a Vietnamese finance ministry document that laid out plans to fund arms purchases from the Kremlin through a joint oil and gas project in Siberia. AFP has contacted the Vietnamese government for comment. US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer told reporters that Washington acknowledged Vietnam's decades-long military relationship with Russia. But he said there was "increasing discomfort on the part of the Vietnamese with that relationship", and the new partnership would help Hanoi "diversify away from those partnerships" by allowing it to source from the United States and its allies. Human rights Biden said he had raised human rights in his meeting with Trong and pledged to "continue our candid dialogue in that regard". Vietnam has a dire rights record. Government critics face intimidation, harassment and imprisonment after unfair trials, and there are reports of police torture to extract confessions, Human Rights Watch says. While Biden has often criticised China's human rights record, he has largely stayed quiet on Vietnam and campaigners feared he may not raise the subject. On Monday Biden visit a Hanoi memorial to his friend John McCain, the former US senator shot down and held captive during the Vietnam War who in later years helped rebuild ties between the two countries. The post US, Vietnam agree to deepen ties as China worries grow appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden leads US tech push in Vietnam
President Joe Biden and senior executives from top US tech firms including Google and Intel met Vietnamese business leaders Monday after the two countries agreed to deepen cooperation as Washington seeks to counter China's growing clout. Biden and Vietnam's ruling Communist Party chief -- the country's paramount leader -- struck a "comprehensive strategic partnership" as Washington pushes to boost its network of allies around Asia and the Pacific. The United States sees manufacturing dynamo Vietnam as an important part of its plan to decrease reliance on China for supplies of strategic resources, and the new pact includes agreements on semiconductors and rare earths. Executives from tech behemoth Google, chip makers Intel and GlobalFoundries, and aviation giant Boeing joined Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for an "innovation and investment summit". They held talks with senior figures from a host of leading Vietnamese tech and manufacturing companies including electric car maker VinFast, internet firm VNG and digital wallet Momo. At the talks, Biden announced that flag-carrier Vietnam Airlines had agreed a $7.8-billion deal with Boeing to buy 50 medium-haul 737 airliners. Other deals announced include Microsoft developing a "generative AI-based solution tailored for Vietnam" and NVIDIA teaming up with local companies to deploy artificial intelligence in the cloud, automotive and healthcare sectors. Semiconductor security The new partnership includes an agreement on semiconductors, with the United States committing to help Vietnam develop its capabilities and expand production, including by funding workforce training. Tiny semiconductors are vital to modern life, found in every electronic device from children's toys and smartphones to electric cars and sophisticated weapon systems. Biden moved last month to restrict US investment in Chinese technology in sensitive areas including semiconductors, quantum computing and AI. With Washington looking to diversify and strengthen its supply chains after a series of shocks hit the global economy, it is increasingly looking to Vietnam, which has the world's second-largest deposits of rare earths -- another strategically vital resource -- after China. The White House highlighted US investment in chipmaking in Vietnam, pointing to a new $1.6 billion factory near Hanoi due to start operations soon. China difficulties Biden insisted Sunday that he did not want to "contain" China, but accused Beijing of seeking to change the rules of the international order. And in their joint statement, Biden and Trong launched a fresh broadside at Beijing in the sprawling, multi-state territorial row over the South China Sea. They warned against "threat or the use of force", days after the latest clash involving Chinese vessels, and insisted the competing claims to the strategic waterway must be settled under international norms. Beijing claims almost the entire sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis. The president met Chinese Premier Li Qiang -- the country's number two leader -- on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Delhi on Sunday. Biden said the major economic problems Beijing was wrestling with would limit its scope for action, particularly on Taiwan -- which China regards as a renegade province. "China has a difficult economic problem right now for a whole range of reasons that relate to the international growth and lack thereof and the policies that China has followed," he said, pointing to high youth unemployment and real estate issues. "I don't think it's going to cause China to invade Taiwan. As a matter of fact, the opposite -- it probably doesn't have the same capacity that it had before." Vietnam has its own squabbles with Beijing, notably over the contested South China Sea. Hanoi's state media on Monday hailed the deal with former war foe the United States as "historic". Biden will end his visit by paying his respects at a memorial to his friend John McCain, the former US Senator shot down in Hanoi as a pilot during the Vietnam War. The post Biden leads US tech push in Vietnam appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
US commerce secretary meets Chinese counterpart in Beijing
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with her Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Monday, saying it was "profoundly important" for the world's two biggest economies to have a stable relationship. Her visit is the latest in a series of high-level trips to China by US officials in recent months as Washington works to cool trade tensions with Beijing. The trips could culminate in a meeting between their leaders, with US President Joe Biden saying recently that he was expecting to sit down with China's Xi Jinping this year. Raimondo met on Monday morning with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, describing the economic relationship between the two countries as "the most significant in the world". "We share $700 billion dollars of trade and I concur with you that it is profoundly important that we have a stable economic relationship," she said, according to a readout from the US Commerce Department. "It's a complicated relationship; it's a challenging relationship," she told Wang. "We will of course disagree on certain issues, but I believe we can make progress if we are direct, open, and practical." Raimondo arrived in Beijing on Sunday and was met by Lin Feng, the director of the commerce ministry's Americas and Oceania department, as well as US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns. In posts on the social media platform X, Raimondo said she was "looking forward to a productive few days". During her trip, she will also travel to China's economic powerhouse Shanghai, the US Commerce Department said. She will leave on Wednesday. Trade tensions Relations between the United States and China have plummeted to some of their lowest levels in decades, with US trade curbs near the top of the laundry list of disagreements. Washington says they are crucial to safeguarding national security, but China sees them as seeking to curb its economic rise. This month, Biden issued an executive order aimed at restricting certain US investments in sensitive high-tech areas in China -- a move Beijing blasted as being "anti-globalisation". The long-anticipated rules, expected to be implemented next year, target sectors such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sought to reassure Chinese officials about the expected curbs during a visit to Beijing last month, promising that any new moves would be implemented in a transparent way. And Raimondo on Monday told Chinese officials that while there was "no room to compromise or negotiate" on US national security, "the vast majority of our trade and investment relationship does not involve national security concerns". "We believe a strong Chinese economy is a good thing," she said. In June, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Beijing, where he met Xi and said progress had been made on a number of key sources of contention. US climate envoy John Kerry also visited China in July. But none of the visits led to major breakthroughs, and a recent Camp David summit between the United States, South Korea and Japan aimed in part at countering China sparked condemnation from Beijing. Following that summit, Biden said he still expected to meet Xi this year. The US president is inviting the Chinese leader to San Francisco in November, when the United States holds a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which includes China. They could also potentially meet next month in New Delhi on the sidelines of a G20 summit. The post US commerce secretary meets Chinese counterpart in Beijing appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden widens web of US alliances faced with China, Russia, Trump
With a historic three-way summit with Japan and South Korea, President Joe Biden has further deepened the web of US partnerships in a determined signal to adversaries despite question marks on the political climate at home. Since Biden took office in 2021, NATO has expanded and mostly closed ranks over Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- and, in clear if unstated responses to an assertive China, the United States forged a new three-way defense pact with Australia and Britain and ramped up work through the four-way Quad involving Australia, India and Japan. The United States already has security alliances with Japan and South Korea, together the bases for some 84,500 troops, but will now also plan three-way, multi-year military exercises across all domains along with real-time information-sharing and a crisis hotline. Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that alliances were "baked" into the mindset of Biden, who was a senator at the end of the Cold War. Partnerships can increase other countries' faith in the direction of the United States, Alterman added. "This administration believes deeply in the centrality -- not the importance, the centrality -- of partnerships," he said. "The challenge is, all of our partners remember the previous administration, they look at the polling numbers, and they have absolutely no confidence in where the US is going to be in two years' time, five years' time or 10 years' time," he said. Previous president Donald Trump loudly questioned the value of alliances, insisting that countries such as Germany and South Korea were not paying enough for the US troop presence and scoffing at NATO's commitments of mutual defense to all allies. Trump is again seeking the White House and recent opinion polls have also shown softening support for US military assistance to Ukraine, which has totaled $43 billion since Russia's attack. Asked about Trump at a news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Camp David presidential retreat, Biden said that his predecessor's "America First policy, walking away from the rest of the world, has made us weaker, not stronger." "America is strong with our allies and our alliances, and that's why we will endure," Biden said. Tougher task in Asia Whereas in Europe the United States has led a common defense for decades under NATO, in Asia -- seen by Biden as the critical region -- Washington has navigated individual alliances with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and Thailand. One reason for the hodgepodge has been historical animosity between Japan and South Korea, with the Camp David summit until recently unthinkable. Yoon has turned the page by resolving a dispute over Japan's wartime forced labor of Koreans. Yoon, Kishida and Biden said they shared the same vision of a "rules-based international order" -- a nod to China's muscle-flexing in Asia but also to Ukraine, of which Japan and South Korea have been prominent non-Western supporters. China denounced the Camp David initiative, with state media saying the United States was raising tensions by creating a "mini-NATO," although there was no three-way mutual defense promise. Shihoko Goto, acting director of the Asia program at the Wilson Center, doubted that the three countries were even aspiring to collective self-defense but said their new cooperation was part of an "interweaving" with existing alliance arrangements. "As a single thread it may be weak, but because it is going to be part of that fabric and making it into a multi-layered approach, it would actually be really strong," she said. Risks await Biden has also moved bilaterally with countries concerned about Russia and China. He has said he plans to travel shortly to boost ties with Vietnam, whose tensions with Beijing run deep. But one of his big bets, India, has stood firm on its historic refusal to join alliances and is also taking part this week in a summit with Russia and China of the BRICS bloc of emerging economies. Trump is not the only wild card for the future. In South Korea, Yoon is only allowed a single term, which ends in 2027. "If an ultra-leftist South Korean president and an ultra-right wing Japanese leader are elected in their next cycles, or even if Trump or someone like him wins in the US, then any one of them could derail all the meaningful, hard work the three countries are putting in right now," said Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. The post Biden widens web of US alliances faced with China, Russia, Trump appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden salutes ‘new era’ of united Japan, S.Korea in face of China
US President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea said Friday they saw a "new chapter" of close three-way security cooperation as the Asian allies joined a first-of-a-kind summit that has already rattled China. Going tieless at the bucolic Camp David presidential retreat, Biden praised the "political courage" of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in turning the page on historical animosity. "Your leadership, with the full support of the United States, has brought us here because each of you understands that our world stands at an inflection point," Biden told a joint news conference in the wooded hills outside Washington. Biden insisted the summit was not about China, which has been flexing its muscle both at home and in Asia under President Xi Jinping, including with major exercises around self-ruling Taiwan. But in a joint statement, the three leaders said they opposed the "dangerous and aggressive behavior" of China in maritime disputes in the East and South China Sea. "We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific," it said. The two US allies largely see eye to eye on the world -- and together are the base for some 84,500 US troops -- but such a summit would have been unthinkable until recently due to the legacy of Japan's harsh 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula. But Yoon, taking political risks at home, has turned the page by resolving a dispute over wartime forced labor, and is now calling Japan a partner at a time of high tensions with both China and North Korea. Yoon said he hoped to be "forward-looking" and called the summit a "historic day" in bringing a "firm institutional basis" to the three nations' joint relationship. The three leaders also agreed to a multi-year plan of regular exercises in all domains, going beyond one-off drills in response to North Korea, and made a formal "commitment to consult" during crises, with Biden saying they would open a hotline. The leaders also agreed to share real-time data on North Korea and to hold summits every year. Camp David marks the first time the three countries' leaders have met for a standalone summit, not on the sidelines of a larger event, and is the first diplomatic event since 2015 at the resort, which is synonymous with Middle East peacemaking. 'You can never become a Westerner' Even if Biden said the summit did not target China, Rahm Emanuel, the blunt-speaking US ambassador to Japan, took another tone when he previewed the meeting, saying the three nations were defying China with the United States showing, "We are the rising power; they are declining." Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the two economically developed Northeast Asian democracies instead to work with Beijing to "revitalize East Asia." "No matter how blond you dye your hair or how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner," he said in a video shared on official media. "We must know where our roots lie," he said. But China's pressure tactics have led to a sharp deterioration in its favorability in Japan and South Korea, which have traditionally been more discreet than the United States in their comments. Tensions have also risen with North Korea, which has launched a volley of missiles in recent months and is feared to respond to the summit with new action. The leaders' joint statement renewed a call on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and urged all nations to enforce sanctions. As the Camp David summit opened, North Korea said it had scrambled jets in response to what it called a US spy plane's incursion. Global allies The summit also set its focus beyond North Korea and even Asia. Tokyo and Seoul have offered a major boost to Ukraine as major non-Western powers joining pressure against Russia's invasion. Kishida said greater cooperation with South Korea was "almost inevitable" in light of the "crisis" in the world order. "Due to Russia's aggression of Ukraine, the international order is shaken from its foundation. The unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas are continuing and the nuclear and missile threats of North Korea are only becoming even greater," Kishida said. The summit aims to institutionalize three-way cooperation to make it difficult for any reversal by a future leader -- a South Korean president who again seizes on hostility with Japan or, potentially, a return of Donald Trump, who has disparaged US troop commitments overseas as wasteful. To the surprise of many observers, Yoon's embrace of Japan has drawn relatively muted protests at home. Yoon, a conservative, has quickly become a close US ally, with Biden welcoming him for a rare state visit in which the South Korean leader regaled the audience by singing "American Pie." But Yoon is constitutionally prohibited from serving more than a single term, which ends in 2027. The post Biden salutes ‘new era’ of united Japan, S.Korea in face of China appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden salutes ‘new era’ of united Japan, S. Korea in face of China
US President Joe Biden on Friday hailed a "new era" of unity with the leaders of South Korea and Japan as the allies unveiled new three-way security cooperation at a first-of-a-kind summit that has already rattled China. Going tieless in the Camp David presidential retreat, Biden praised the "political courage" of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in turning the page on historical animosity. "Our countries are stronger -- and the world will be safer -- as we stand together. I know that's a belief that we all three share," he told them as he opened the talks in the mountains west of Washington. Biden said the three would pursue "this new era of cooperation and renew our resolve to serve as a force of good across the Indo-Pacific and, quite frankly, around the world." The two treaty-bound US allies largely see eye to eye on the world -- and together are the base for some 84,500 US troops -- but such a summit would have been unthinkable until recently due to the legacy of Japan's harsh 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula. But Yoon, taking political risks at home, has turned the page by resolving a dispute over wartime forced labor, and now calling Japan a partner at a time of high tensions with both China and North Korea. "Today will be remembered as a historic day, where we established a firm institutional basis and commitments to the trilateral partnership," Yoon said. The three leaders will agree to a multi-year plan of regular exercises in all domains, going beyond one-off drills in response to North Korea, and will announce a "commitment to consult" during crises, said Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor. The leaders will also agree to share real-time data on North Korea and to hold summits every year, officials said. Camp David marks the first time the three countries' leaders have met for a standalone summit, not on the sidelines of a larger event, and is the first diplomatic event since 2015 at the resort, which is synonymous with Middle East peacemaking. You can never become Westerner Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor, said the summit would have an "affirmative vision" on how the countries can deliver together and was "not taking aim at a country." But Rahm Emanuel, the blunt-speaking US ambassador to Japan, took another tone when he previewed the summit, saying that the three powers "created something that is exactly what China was hoping would never happen." For Emanuel, the former congressman turned ambassador, China should understand one thing: "We are the rising power; they are declining." China has flexed its muscle both at home and in Asia under President Xi Jinping, exerting disputed maritime claims and carrying out major exercises near Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the two economically developed Northeast Asian democracies instead to work with Beijing to "revitalize East Asia." "No matter how blond you dye your hair or how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner," he said in a video shared on official media. "We must know where our roots lie," he said. But China's pressure tactics have led to a sharp deterioration in its favorability in Japan and South Korea, which have traditionally been more discreet than the United States in their comments. Tensions have also risen with North Korea, which has launched a volley of missiles in recent months and is feared to respond with new action in response to the summit. As the Camp David summit opened, North Korea said it had scrambled jets in response to what it called a US spy plane's incursion. Global allies But the summit hopes to move beyond a focus on North Korea or even just Asia. Tokyo and Seoul have offered a major boost to Ukraine as major non-Western powers join pressure against Russia's invasion. The summit aims to institutionalize three-way cooperation to make it difficult for any reversal by a future leader -- a South Korean president who again seizes on hostility with Japan or, potentially, a return of Donald Trump, who has disparaged US troop commitments overseas as wasteful. To the surprise of many observers, Yoon's embrace of Japan has drawn relatively muted protests at home. Both Japanese and South Koreans feel that there are "a number of fundamentally aligned values and interests that should bring them together," said Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior director for East Asia and Oceania on the National Security Council. Yoon, a conservative, has quickly become a close US ally, with Biden welcoming him for a rare state visit in which the South Korean leader regaled the audience by singing "American Pie." But Yoon is constitutionally prohibited from serving more than a single term, which ends in 2027. The post Biden salutes ‘new era’ of united Japan, S. Korea in face of China appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
N.Korea could test missile as US meets with S.Korea, Japan: Yonhap
South Korean intelligence believes North Korea is preparing to test launch an intercontinental ballistic missile to coincide with a three-way summit among the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea, Yonhap news agency reported Thursday. It said this launch could be part of a series of military provocations by the reclusive state to show defiance as the three leaders of international pressure on Pyongyang and its weapons programs confer Friday outside Washington. The show of force could also be designed to protest US-South Korean military exercises which start Monday and are due to last the rest of the month, the agency said. Yonhap quoted a lawmaker, Yoo Sang-bum, who sat in on a briefing of the parliamentary intelligence committee by the National Intelligence Service. "We are continuously identifying signs of preparation for an ICBM launch, such as the frequent movements of propellants out of liquid fuel factories," Yoo said, according to Yonhap. Yoo also said the North is expected to conduct a joint exercise of its armed forces, including the test launch of a missile that can be fitted with a tactical nuclear weapon. His remarks came as US President Joe Biden prepared to welcome South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the president's retreat at Camp David on Friday. The unprecedented three-way summit is designed to show a message of strength to China. Pyongyang has sped up its testing of nuclear-capable missiles in the past year, heightening tensions across East Asia. The post N.Korea could test missile as US meets with S.Korea, Japan: Yonhap appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Conflict evolves
A new form of the Cold War that started in the 1950s is playing out in the West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea that the mainland has claimed as historically part of its territory. A 2016 award of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, or PCA, invalidated the historic claim. China, however, said it does not recognize the ruling and it will only accede to bilateral discussions on the maritime conflict. United States security officials have laid out a scenario of heightened posturing in the WPS that is being referred to as the gray zone conflict in which China’s aggressiveness is expected to heighten short of an actual armed conflict. Geopolitical experts said the evolving military relations of the United States and the Philippines are geared toward the WPS developments. In May 2023, new bilateral defense guidelines were issued to clarify the conditions under which American forces would come to the aid of their Philippine counterparts under the terms of the Mutual Defense Treaty. The guidelines marked a change in American policy in the South China Sea from “scrupulous noninvolvement” to one that seems focused on deterring provocative Chinese actions in “gray zone” scenarios, according to Felix Chang, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the chief operating officer of DecisionQ, an artificial intelligence engineering company. He said the Philippines had long sought a clarification of America’s obligations but Washington was reluctant to give it. The US government’s previous concern was that Manila might use the mutual defense treaty as leverage to advance its maritime and territorial claims against its neighbors in the South China Sea, potentially drawing the United States into confrontations with them, most notably China. The recent American policy shift in the South China Sea, however, follows others that have occurred over the last decade. The major factors that paved the way for the new bilateral defense guidelines have been Manila’s continued commitment to rebuilding its external defense capabilities and Washington’s growing perception of China as a strategic adversary. In the event of an attack, given that the Philippines and the United States share a long-standing mutual defense treaty, American forces would be obliged to come to the country’s aid if the attack occurred in recognized Philippine territorial waters. “But until Manila and Washington issued new bilateral defense guidelines in May 2023, it was unclear what America’s obligations would be if the attack occurred in disputed waters or against non-military Philippine government vessels, like those of its coast guard. Such circumstances were considered ‘gray-zone’ scenarios,” Chang indicated. The newly issued bilateral defense guidelines that were hammered out during the recent state visit of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. cleared up the ambiguity. They also marked a change in American policy in the WPS from “scrupulous noninvolvement” to one that seems focused on deterrence. Chang indicated that for the Philippines, the change could not have come soon enough with China’s increasingly aggressive efforts to assert its sovereignty over the waters within its “nine-dash line.” Barack Obama’s administration was the first to take a slightly firmer stance on the WPS. Then, Chang said, American policy took on a more defiant tone under President Donald Trump, who formally rejected China’s “nine-dash line” claim. And with relations between China and the United States deteriorating further during the early years of the Biden White House, not to mention continued Chinese assertiveness in Southeast Asia, Washington had become open to clarifying the terms of its MDT with Manila. President Marcos visited Washington in May 2023, he was able to secure what his predecessors had not: a clarification of America’s obligations in “gray-zone” scenarios. Chang added the main reason for Washington’s opaque posture had been Manila’s longtime neglect of its external defense capabilities. The Philippines, which at one time fielded one of Asia’s largest and most modern armed forces, had allowed its navy to dwindle to four offshore patrol boats and its air force to mothball its last jet aircraft in 2005, he said. President Marcos’ recent talks with President Joe Biden was all about restoring equilibrium in the disputed seas. The post Conflict evolves appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Rich-poor split could tighten ‘grip of poverty’: World Bank chief
The new head of the World Bank said Tuesday that growing divides between rich and poor nations risked deepening poverty in the developing world, at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in India. Many countries are still recovering from the double blow of the coronavirus pandemic and fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine -- which hit global fuel and commodity prices. Climate change, meanwhile, is most painfully affecting some of the poorest countries least able to cope. Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, said he feared a lack of progress was in danger of splitting the global economy, to the detriment of the world's poorest. "The thing that keeps me up at night is a mistrust that is quietly pulling the Global North and South apart at a time when we need to be uniting," Banga told the two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs in Gandhinagar, Gujarat state. "The Global South's frustration is understandable. In many ways they are paying the price for our prosperity," said Indian-born Banga, a naturalized American citizen who took up the bank post last month after being nominated by US President Joe Biden. "When they should be ascendant, they're concerned promised resources will be diverted to Ukraine's reconstruction, they feel energy rules aren't applied evenly, constraining ambition, and they're worried the grip of poverty will pull down another generation." The World Bank said it is working to increase its financial capability -- including by raising hybrid capital from shareholders -- to spur growth and jobs, but said the future economy could not rely on expansion at the cost of the environment. "The simple truth is: We cannot endure another period of emission-intensive growth," Banga said. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, chair and host of the get-together, launched talks on Monday by reminding leaders of their responsibility "to steer the global economy towards strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth". The United States says efforts to reform multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and other regional institutions could unlock $200 billion over the next decade. Little progress on debt Debt restructuring deals for low-income nations have been a key focus of The Group of 20 major economies, but officials suggest there has been little headway. China, the world's second-largest economy and a major lender to several stressed, low-income countries in Asia and Africa, has so far resisted any one-size-fits-all debt restructuring formula, officials said. More than half of all low-income countries are near or in debt distress, double the amount in 2015, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. Yellen on Sunday said a deal on Zambian debt had taken "too long to negotiate", but added she hoped debt treatments for Ghana and Sri Lanka could be "finalized quickly". Finance ministers from regional rivals and neighbors India and China met early Tuesday, without commenting to reporters. The G20 talks have also focused on multilateral development banks' reform, cryptocurrency regulations, and easier access to financing to mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change. A newly agreed first step on a fairer distribution of tax revenues from multinational firms -- reached by 138 countries last week -- is also set to be delivered. Multinationals, especially tech firms, are currently able to shift profits easily to countries with low tax rates even though they carry out only a small part of their activities there. The post Rich-poor split could tighten ‘grip of poverty’: World Bank chief appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Yellen to visit China, raising need to ‘responsibly manage’ ties
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to visit Beijing this week, the United States said Sunday, marking the second trip by a cabinet official to China since ties between the world's top two economies deteriorated earlier this year. Yellen is expected to discuss with her counterparts the importance for both countries "to responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges," said the Treasury Department in a statement. Yellen's planned July 6-9 trip comes just weeks after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China's top leader President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing in June. Blinken was the highest-ranking US official to visit the Chinese capital in nearly five years, and Xi said on the rare trip that he saw headway in the strained relationship between Washington and Beijing. In Beijing, Yellen will discuss how the United States views its economic relationship with China, a senior Treasury official said Sunday. She will meet with senior Chinese officials and leading US firms, the American spokesperson said without providing specifics. While the US seeks to secure its national security interests and protect human rights, actions to this effect are "not intended to gain economic advantage over China," the official added. Washington also looks towards "healthy" ties with Beijing and does not seek to decouple the economies, while pursuing cooperation on urgent challenges like climate change and debt distress, the American official said. The United States does not expect "significant breakthrough" from this initial trip, but it does aim to build longer-term channels of communication with China, the Treasury official added. - Restarting engagement - "I think the US government is clearly trying to put some floor under the deterioration of the economic relationship," Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) told AFP, speaking on the Treasury secretary's intentions to visit China. A Yellen trip could "restart a steady pattern of engagement at lower levels," he said, adding that the US has shifted from being ambiguous about how far it was supporting decoupling to explicitly adopting a strategy of "derisking" instead. This means "focusing on a narrower range of items that have strategic importance, trying to build fences around those items, but otherwise trying to continue to nurture a reasonably robust US-China economic relationship," Alden said. But observers do not expect a quick resolution to tensions. President Joe Biden's administration is considering a program to restrict certain US outbound investments involving sensitive technology with key national security implications -- an issue that has riled Chinese officials. Other possible sticking points include amendments to China's anti-espionage law which recently broadened the definition of spying while banning the transfer of information relating to national security -- a move that has spooked foreign and domestic businesses. The senior Treasury official told reporters Sunday that Washington intends to communicate its concerns over the law. While significant disagreements may not be resolved in a single trip, the US seeks to deepen and increase the frequency of communication with China and to "stabilize the relationship," avoiding miscommunication and expanding collaboration where possible, the official said. - Global growth, debt problems - For the US, discussions with officials from the world's second biggest economy "are important to help spur stronger global economic growth and to tackle the mounting debt problem of the Global South," said Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, discussing a prospective Yellen visit. On Beijing's part, officials are "looking for concrete steps taken by the US to show that 'decoupling' and holding back China is not the ultimate goal of the United States," Cutler added. But despite US policies that have drawn ire from Beijing, officials likely have an awareness of China's continued export dependence and the importance of the US market, CFR's Alden said. "I think that there's a growing awareness in Beijing that China also needs to play a role in nurturing this economic relationship with the United States, because it's simply too important to China as well," he added. Washington and Beijing recently have clashed over trade, human rights and other issues. Relations came under further stress this year when the United States shot down a Chinese balloon it said was used for surveillance -- a claim China strongly denied. But Blinken's reception in Beijing has been seen as a symbolic sign of lowering temperatures. bys/mlm/dw © Agence France-Presse The post Yellen to visit China, raising need to ‘responsibly manage’ ties appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden, Modi sending China message
US President Joe Biden has embraced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as he has few other world leaders, because he is laser-focused on opposing China, putting aside any worries about the Hindu nationalist’s authoritarian tendencies. With two dinners — one formal and the other more casual — a meeting with leading CEOs, and a long list of concrete commitments, including agreements on US engines for India’s new domestic fighter-jets and a sizable semiconductor factory, Biden gave Modi the full pomp of a state visit. Biden is “trying to tell the world that America is back. We’ve got partners and allies and we’ve got India on our side of the ledger,” said Aparna Pande, a South Asia expert at the Hudson Institute. Biden hopes to “send a message to China — you have your people and I have my people and India is among mine,” she said. The joint statement for Modi’s visit, according to former State Department official Tamanna Salikuddin, was “remarkable” in its scope and included defense deliverables on par with what the US would give a NATO or other treaty ally. “The depth and breadth of what we’re committing to with India is really putting them in a totally different basket. And I think that is what Modi wanted,” said Salikuddin, now director of South Asia programs at the US Institute of Peace. Despite renewed efforts to defuse tensions, the Biden administration views China as the most significant long-term rival to the United States. Both Biden and Modi publicly downplayed the significance of China, but in his speech to the US Congress, where he supported a “free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” Modi made a clear allusion, drawing approving nods from lawmakers. The world’s most populous nation, India, which has a rapidly expanding economy, has a protracted territorial dispute with China that is widely viewed negatively in India. The post Biden, Modi sending China message appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Blinken on rare Beijing visit in bid to lower temperature
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday began the highest-level trip by a US official to China in nearly five years as the two powers looked to notch down the temperature in an escalating rivalry. Both sides have voiced guarded hope of improving communication and preventing conflict, with the world's two largest economies at odds on an array of issues from trade to technology and regional security. Officials though have played down hopes of a major breakthrough during Blinken's two days in Beijing. Blinken was originally scheduled to visit in February but abruptly scrapped his plans as the United States protested -- and later shot down -- what it said was a Chinese spy balloon flying over its soil. US President Joe Biden played down the balloon episode as Blinken was heading to China, saying: "I don't think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on." "I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional," Biden told reporters Saturday. Biden said he hoped to again meet President Xi Jinping after their lengthy and strikingly cordial meeting in November on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Bali, where they agreed on Blinken's visit. "I'm hoping that, over the next several months, I'll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how there's areas we can get along," Biden said. The two leaders are likely to attend the next G20 summit, in September in New Delhi, and Xi is invited to travel to San Francisco in November when the United States hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Blinken will see top Chinese officials including over a banquet at the state guesthouse in the ancient Diaoyutai gardens. He has said he would seek to avoid "miscalculations" and to "responsibly manage" relations with the country identified by US policymakers across party lines as the greatest challenge to Washington's global primacy. "Intense competition requires sustained diplomacy to ensure that competition does not veer into confrontation or conflict," Blinken said Friday in Washington. - Array of disputes - The United States and China are at odds over a slew of issues including trade, technology and Taiwan. Beijing has not ruled out seizing Taiwan by force and has conducted military drills twice since August near the self-governing democracy, in response to top US lawmakers' actions. Ahead of Blinken's visit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the United States needed to "respect China's core concerns" and "give up the illusion of dealing with China 'from a position of strength'". Beijing has been especially irritated by Biden's restrictions on the export of high-end semiconductors to China, with the United States both fearing their military application and eager to prevent the communist state from dominating next-generation technologies. In a rising domestic priority for the United States, Blinken is expected to press China to curb precursor chemicals sent to Latin America to produce fentanyl, the powerful painkiller behind an addiction pandemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year. "We're going to discuss this issue directly, and we're going to be looking for steps to reduce the scale of the problem," said a US official traveling with Blinken. Washington has also lashed China over human rights, with Blinken's visit the first by a cabinet member since the United States formally accused Beijing of genocide against the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority. - Keeping allies close - As part of the Biden administration's focus on keeping allies close, Blinken spoke by telephone with his counterparts from both Japan and South Korea during his 20-hour trans-Pacific journey. Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, traveled to Tokyo for separate three-way meetings involving Japan and both South Korea and the Philippines. In recent months the United States has reached deals on troop deployments in southern Japan and the northern Philippines, both strategically close to Taiwan. Blinken before departure also met in Washington with his counterpart from ally Singapore, who voiced hope that the United States would stay as a power but also find ways to coexist with a rising China. Blinken's "trip is essential, but not sufficient", Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said. "There are fundamental differences in outlook, in values. And it takes time for mutual respect and strategic trust to be built in." Blinken is the first top US diplomat to visit Beijing since a stop in 2018 by his predecessor Mike Pompeo, who later championed no-holds-barred confrontation with China in the final years of Donald Trump's presidency. The Biden administration has gone further than Trump in some areas, notably semiconductors, but has remained open to cooperation in limited areas such as climate. Experts say China sees more predictability with Biden than with Trump, who is running for president again next year. Danny Russel, the top diplomat on East Asia during Barack Obama's second term, doubted Blinken's brief trip would resolve fundamental differences. "But his visit may well restart badly needed face-to-face dialogue and send a signal that both countries are moving from angry rhetoric at the press podium to sober discussions behind closed doors." sct/je/leg © Agence France-Presse The post Blinken on rare Beijing visit in bid to lower temperature appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Chinese jet performed risky maneuver near American surveillance plane: US
A Chinese fighter pilot performed an "unnecessarily aggressive maneuver" near an American surveillance aircraft operating over the South China Sea last week, the US military said Tuesday. The incident -- which the Pentagon says is part of a pattern of behavior by China -- comes at a time of already heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over issues including Taiwan and an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down after traversing the United States earlier this year. The Chinese plane "flew directly in front of and within 400 feet of the nose of the RC-135, forcing the US aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence" on Friday, the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) said in a statement. "The RC-135 was conducting safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law," the command said. Declassified video footage shows a fighter plane crossing in front of the American aircraft, which can be seen shaking from the resulting turbulence. A senior US defense official said there has been an "alarming increase in the number of risky aerial intercepts and confrontations at sea" by Chinese aircraft and ships -- actions that "have the potential to create an unsafe incident or miscalculation." "We don't believe it's done by pilots operating independently," the official said. "We believe it's part of a wider pattern." A similar incident involving a Chinese jet and a US RC-135 took place in December, forcing the American plane "to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision," INDOPACOM said at the time The announcement on the latest incident came a day after the Pentagon said Beijing had refused a US invitation for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet his Chinese counterpart in Singapore later this week. But the senior official said the timing of the announcement was unrelated to China's refusal of the invitation, explaining that information about the aircraft incident "was subject to the US military declassification process and US diplomatic communication process." Austin and other US officials have been working to shore up alliances and partnerships in Asia as part of efforts to counter increasingly assertive moves by Beijing, but there have also been tentative signs that the two sides were working to lower the temperature. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met in Vienna earlier this month, and President Joe Biden later said that ties between Washington and Beijing should thaw "very soon." The post Chinese jet performed risky maneuver near American surveillance plane: US appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
China declines meeting with US defense chief: Pentagon
Beijing has declined a US invitation for a meeting in Singapore between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu, the Pentagon said Monday. "Overnight, the PRC informed the US that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary Austin to meet with PRC Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu in Singapore this week," Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement, referring to the People's Republic of China. "The PRC's concerning unwillingness to engage in meaningful military-to-military discussions will not diminish (the Defense Department's) commitment to seeking open lines of communication with the People's Liberation Army," Ryder said. A senior US defense official described the declined invitation as "just the latest in a litany of excuses," saying that since 2021, China has "declined or failed to respond to over a dozen requests from the Department of Defense for key leader engagements, multiple requests for standing dialogues, and nearly ten working-level engagements." Li was sanctioned by the US government in 2018 for buying Russian weapons, but the Pentagon says that does not prevent Austin from conducting official business with him. Austin is due to travel to Singapore later this week to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, a defense summit where he met Li's predecessor Wei Fenghe last June. Austin and Wei met again in Cambodia later in 2022, but tensions between Washington and Beijing soared this year over issues including Taiwan and an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by a US warplane after traversing the country. Austin and other US officials have been working to shore up alliances and partnerships in Asia as part of efforts to counter increasingly assertive moves by Beijing, but there have also been tentative signs that the two sides were working to lower the temperature. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna earlier this month, and President Joe Biden recently said ties between Washington and Beijing should thaw "very shortly," citing the spy balloon incident as a factor that had boosted tensions. The post China declines meeting with US defense chief: Pentagon appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
G7 to squeeze Russia, weigh risk of China’s ‘economic coercion’
G7 leaders arrived in Hiroshima, Japan, on Thursday to weigh tighter sanctions on Russia and protections against China's "economic coercion", surrounded by reminders about the harrowing cost of war. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is hosting leaders from six other wealthy democracies in his hometown -- a city synonymous with nuclear destruction and now peppered with peace monuments. Leaders including US President Joe Biden will try over three days to forge a united front on Russia and China, where the allies' interests do not always neatly align. Biden's delicate diplomatic offensive in Asia hit a bump even before Air Force One left US soil: A domestic budget row forced him to cancel stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia. He arrived in Hiroshima Thursday, becoming just the second US president after Barack Obama to visit a city levelled by his country's "Little Boy" atomic bomb. Russia's 15-month-old invasion of Ukraine will top the agenda when the G7 summit gets underway Friday, after a new spate of aerial attacks on Kyiv and a long winter of grinding warfare in Bakhmut and other frontline towns. "We stand up for the shared values including supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereign territory and holding Russia accountable for its brutal aggression," Biden said as he met Kishida Thursday. The United States and its allies have poured weaponry into Ukraine to stall the Russian advance, but a long-anticipated spring counteroffensive by Kyiv's forces has yet to materialize. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the group by video link. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said leaders would discuss battlefield developments and tightening a sanctions regime that, according to official statistics, caused Russia's economy to contract a further 1.9 percent last quarter. G7 nations have already adopted sanctions on Russian banks and military firms, and placed price caps on Russian crude. Discussions are expected on tighter enforcement, and new measures on a range of goods, including Moscow's roughly $5 billion annual trade in diamonds. Nuclear shadow Putin's repeated threats to turn the Ukraine conflict nuclear have been roundly condemned by G7 leaders and dismissed by some commentators as little more than an attempt to shake European and American resolve. But a leaders' visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Friday is likely to pull those threats into sharper focus. The bombing on 6 August 1945 obliterated Hiroshima, claimed an estimated 140,000 lives and forever changed the world. Kishida wants to use the summit to press his guests -- nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States -- to commit to transparency on stockpiles and arsenal reductions. But expectations for a breakthrough are low. 'Economic coercion' Summit discussions on China are expected to focus on efforts to insulate G7 economies from potential economic blackmail, by diversifying supply chains and markets. In disputes with countries from Australia to Canada, President Xi Jinping's administration has shown a willingness to block, tax or hamper trade with little warning or explanation. White House official Sullivan said leaders were expected to decry this "economic coercion" and work to bridge transatlantic differences about how to engage with China. Washington has taken an aggressive approach, blocking China's access to the most advanced semiconductors and the equipment to make them, and has pressed Japan and the Netherlands to follow suit. But European policymakers -- most notably those in Berlin and Paris -- are keen to make sure that "de-risking" does not mean shattering ties with China, one of the world's largest markets. "This G7 is not an anti-Chinese G7," an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron told journalists before the summit. "We have a positive message for China, which is that we are ready to cooperate on condition that we negotiate together," the adviser added. Host Japan is also keen to talk to developing nations that have been wooed by Chinese investment, with leaders from India, Brazil and Indonesia among those invited by Kishida to Hiroshima. Evidence of Beijing's growing economic and diplomatic clout was on display Thursday in the former imperial capital Xi'an. There, Xi is hosting the leaders of five Central Asian countries that were once seen as firmly in Moscow's orbit but are increasingly drawn to Beijing. The post G7 to squeeze Russia, weigh risk of China’s ‘economic coercion’ appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»