US President Joe Biden meets tomorrow with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. For leading political consultants and analysts, questioned by the US and Asian economic press, the prominent theme is obvious: “how to combat China’s growing global influence”.
For Jonathan Wood, director and chief analyst of the consultancy Control Risks, the foreign policy priorities of the new White House are “rebuilding old US alliances and competing directly with China”, says the executive, in statements to CNBC.
This will be the first face-to-face meeting between the US President and a foreign head of state since Biden took office in January, as the Wall Street Journal points out.
Experts believe that on the table will be attacks on human rights directed by Beijing against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, unfair Chinese trade practices, denounced last month by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, 5G and increased diplomatic pressure on the Taiwan Strait.
Last week, several Asian economists were unanimous in telling the Nikkei economic daily that Japan and the US can create” the arch-enemy of the Belt and Road”, a programme architected by Beijing that aims to build physical infrastructure and digital bridges to connect Asia to Africa and Europe, thus generating new global economic routes, favourable to Xi Jinping’s economy by ensuring that “all roads lead to China”.
“Establishing an alternative to the Belt and Road is an important step for Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda,” concludes Neil Thomas, an analyst at risk management consultancy Eurasia Group, in a statement to the Financial Times.
Relations between China and the US are increasingly strained. Joe Biden further soured relations with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, when he decided to step up support for Taiwan, through a protocol signed with the island’s coast guard and an increased US naval presence in the waters of the South China Sea.
Yesterday, Beijing warned that it is determined to use force to prevent Taiwan from drawing closer to the United States, at a time when former US government officials are visiting the island.
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council, warned that recent military exercises near Taiwan were a warning to Taipei that moving closer to the US to achieve independence will be a failure.
