The President of the United States Joe Biden and the head of the Japanese government Yoshihide Suga, the first foreign leader welcomed in Washington by Mr. Biden since his inauguration, on Friday pledged to face “together” the “challenges” posed by China.
“We are determined to work together to meet the challenges posed by China and on issues such as the East China Sea, the South China Sea, but also North Korea,” said the Democratic President. during a joint press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House.
“We are working together to demonstrate that democracies can win the competitions of the 21st century by bringing results for their peoples,” said Joe Biden, taking up his leitmotif of an ideological standoff against “autocracies”.
Echoing this union of democrats wanted by the American president to stand together in the face of the inexorable rise to power of Beijing, the head of the Japanese government spoke of an alliance founded on “freedom, democracy and human rights” .
He added by assuring that the two allied countries would oppose “any Chinese attempt” to “change the status quo by force or intimidation in the seas of South and East China”.
The choice as first guest of the Japanese leader, who will be followed in May by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, reflects the priority given by Joe Biden to the closest allies of the United States, especially in Asia where the competition is played out. against Washington’s number one strategic opponent.
Anxious to put forward tangible progress, the American president said he would work with Tokyo to “promote reliable and secure 5G networks”. A joint statement then specified that it was a commitment of 2.5 billion dollars on the American side, and 2 billion dollars on the Japanese side.
“Strong discontent”
The two leaders also spoke of the growing tensions over Taiwan, which denounces increasingly hostile actions on the part of Beijing, and the strategy against North Korea, which the US president is due to unveil soon.
In their joint statement, they underlined “the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and encouraged “the peaceful resolution of the problems of crossing the strait”.
Even measured in a measured manner, this is the first time that a Japanese leader has issued a joint statement with an American president on Taiwan since the two allies recognized Beijing instead of Taipei in the 1970s.
The Chinese Embassy in the United States expressed in a statement on Saturday its “deep discontent” after these comments “which affect the fundamental interests of China, which will not tolerate any interference” in its internal affairs.
“It could not be more ironic that such an attempt to stir up division in Asia-Pacific and to build small blocs directed against third countries is presented as + freedom and openness”, he said. – it underlined in reference to the American will to build a “free and open Indo-Pacific region”.
Former US President Donald Trump launched a campaign to pressure many countries to give up using the equipment of the Chinese giant Huawei, a leader in the deployment of 5G.
Joe Biden wants to continue the offensive, and claimed that the technologies at the heart of global competition were “governed by standards set by democracies, not autocracies.”
A cautious Japan
A senior official in the Biden administration also noted that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, announced this week, would “free up time, attention and resources” from the United States “to focus” on “the Indo-Pacific region ”.
The White House also welcomed the fact that Yoshihide Suga “announced that he would join the United States in unveiling a new goal” of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by the summit. virtual climate show hosted by Joe Biden in a week.
Yoshihide Suga, however, expressed his reservations about the Americans’ attempt to enlist Japan more frankly in their confrontation with China – the Japanese economy still depends largely on trade with Beijing.
Tokyo has thus refrained from joining US sanctions against China over the Uyghurs.
According to Michael Green, former adviser to ex-President George W. Bush on Asia and currently vice-president of the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, “the Biden administration is concerned about the growing aggressiveness of China and the ground lost by the United States in the region in recent years ”, and therefore wants to“ quickly make up for lost time ”.
Japan, for its part, wants to methodically follow its more cautious strategy. “So there are some nuances in the public expression of their positions, but they are generally heading in the same direction,” said Mr. Green.
