Japan shares U.S. concern over China
TOKYO — Japan and the United States joined forces Tuesday to criticize China’s “coercion and aggression” in Asia as senior ministers from both countries held their first inperson talks since President Biden took office in January.
Aside from the sharp rhetoric aimed at Beijing, the meeting in Tokyo and a planned stop next in Seoul are as much an effort by the Biden administration to reassure worried allies in Asia after four years of occasionally confrontational dealings with the Trump administration.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after holding the socalled “two plus two” security talks with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts — Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi — said democracy and human rights in the region are being challenged and the United States will push with its partners for a free and open IndoPacific.
Blinken said the Biden administration is committed to work with U.S. allies and those in the region as they face challenges from China and its ally North Korea, which is pursuing an illicit nuclear weapons program.
“We will push back if necessary, when China uses coercion or aggression to get its way,” he said.
In a joint statement released after the talks, the ministers shared strong worry over Beijing’s human rights violations in Xinjiang, “unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea” and “unilateral action that seeks to change the status quo” over the Japan-controlled East China Sea islands that China also claims. The statement also stressed the importance of “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait.
On the Biden administration’s first Cabinetlevel trip abroad, Blinken and Austin also agreed with their Japanese counterparts to cooperate on the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, as well as the nuclear threat posed by North Korea and the situation in Myanmar after its military coup.
On Tuesday, a day after the two U.S. officials arrived, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister warned the U.S. to “refrain from causing a stink” if it wants to “sleep in peace” for the next four years.
She also criticized the U.S. and South Korea for holding military exercises.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement was North Korea’s first comments directed at the Biden administration.
Biden’s decision to send key ministers to Japan as their first overseas visit — rather than hosting Japanese officials in Washington — means a lot for Japan, which considers its alliance with the United States the cornerstone of its diplomatic and security policies.