Pompeo rallies allies on China
In meeting with Japan, India and Australia, secretary of State accuses Beijing of seeking domination.
TOKYO — U. S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said Tuesday that China’s increasingly assertive actions across the region make it more critical than ever for four Indo- Pacific nations known as the Quad to cooperate to protect their partners and their people from Chinese “exploitation, corruption and coercion.”
Pompeo made the remark at a meeting in Tokyo with the foreign ministers of Japan, India and Australia, who together make up the Quad.
The talks were the group’s first in- person meeting since the COVID- 19 pandemic began.
Pompeo accused China of covering up the pandemic and worsening it, while threatening freedom, democracy and diversity in the region with its increasingly assertive actions.
“It is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation, corruption and coercion,” Pompeo said.
“We see in the East and South China Seas. The Mekong, the Himalayas, the Taiwan Strait. These are just a few examples.”
The talks came weeks before the U. S. election and amid tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus, trade, technology, Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights.
They follow a recent f lare- up in tensions between China and India over their disputed Himalayan border, while relations between Australia and China have also deteriorated in recent months.
Japan, meanwhile, is concerned about China’s claim to the Japanese- controlled Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea.
Japan also considers China’s growing military activity to be a security threat. Japan’s annual defense policy paper in July accused China of unilaterally changing the status quo in the South China Sea, where it has built and militarized man- made islands and is assertively pressing its claim to virtually all of the sea’s key fisheries and waterways.
China has denied allegations of covering up the pandemic, saying it acted quickly to provide information to the World Health Organization and the world. It says the U. S. is the biggest aggressor in the South China Sea. Beijing also denies human rights violations in its handling of Hong Kong and minority Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, and accuses Western nations of meddling in its internal affairs.
Earlier Tuesday, new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in a meeting with the Quad diplomats that their Free and Open Indo- Pacific security and economic initiative is more important than ever amid challenges from the COVID- 19 pandemic.
The international community faces multiple challenges as it tries to resolve the pandemic, and “this is exactly why right now it is time that we should further deepen coordination with as many countries as possible that share our vision,” Suga said, without directly criticizing China.
Suga took office on Sept. 16, vowing to carry on predecessor Shinzo Abe’s hawkish security and diplomatic stance. Abe was a key driving force behind promoting the FOIP initiative, which Suga called “a vision of peace and prosperity of this region” and pledged to pursue.
Japan and the U. S. have been pushing the initiative as a way to bring together “like- minded” countries that share concerns about China’s growing assertiveness and inf luence.
Pompeo, as well as Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and their Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, held talks after meeting Suga together.
Pompeo earlier met oneon- one with his three counterparts, meetings that, according to the State Department, reaffirmed the importance of cooperating among them to advance peace, prosperity and security in the Indo- Pacific.
Pompeo attended the Quad meeting but canceled subsequent planned visits to South Korea and Mongolia after President Trump was hospitalized with COVID- 19.
Pompeo was the only one who explicitly criticized China in opening remarks at the Quad meeting.
Others used more nuanced language to describe the significance of promoting the concept of the FOIP initiative as an inclusive, rule- based, democratic order that respects territorial sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputes, rather than making allegations against China.