In this 22 February 2021, file photo, a woman wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus sits near a screen showing China and US flags as she listens to a speech by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Lanting Forum on bringing China-US relations back to the right track, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing. The Biden administration has added seven Chinese supercomputer research labs and manufacturers to a US export blacklist in a spreading conflict with Beijing over technology and security. File photo/AP/Andy Wong
AP
BEIJING, China, 16 April 2021
China said Friday it has expressed “serious concerns” to the United States and Japan over what it calls negative moves and collusion between the two countries against China.
The statement from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian came just before President Joe Biden welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to the White House on Friday in his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader.
That meeting is seen as reflecting Biden’s emphasis on strengthening alliances to deal with a more assertive China and other global challenges.
Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing that Japan and the United States should “take China’s concerns and demands seriously, avoid words and actions that interfere in China’s internal affairs and harm China’s interests.”
“China has no objection to the development of normal bilateral relations between Japan and the United States, but such relations should help enhance mutual understanding and trust among regional countries and contribute to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and should not target or harm the interests of third parties,” Zhao said.
China would “make necessary responses as appropriate,” he said.
Biden and Suga see their meeting as a chance to counter messaging from Chinese President Xi Jinping that America and democracies in general are on the decline, after the political turmoil and backing away from global leadership that marked Donald Trump’s presidency.
Japan remains China’s traditional rival dating from Tokyo’s brutal WWII occupation of much of the country. Relations between Washington and Beijing are tenser than ever over trade, technology, Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights, particularly China’s policies toward Turkic Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
US and Chinese naval movements in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, have added to tensions in recent days, following statements from US officials that Beijing may be accelerating its schedule to annex Taiwan by force.
The Biden administration says the primary challenge for the United States lies in managing US policies toward the Indo-Pacific, the main theater in which China is flexing its growing economic and military power. That helped guide Biden’s decision, announced this week, to pull US troops out of Afghanistan and free the administration to focus more on East Asia.
China is eyeing Taiwan with enhanced vigor emboldened by the realization that America under Biden is not going to do much beyond mere rhetoric. It has increased military activity around Taiwan. So, it has fallen upon Australia and Japan to step up its commitment to Taiwan in case of Sino-Taiwan military clash. Australia’s former defense minister warned that Australia will likely be dragged into a war with China in the next 5-10 years, the flashpoint being Taiwan. Japan too has taken a clear stand on the issue and hinted at its willingness to provide full military support to Taiwan in case of a military clash. In fact, even in terms of diplomacy it is Tokyo that has forced Biden Admin to speak up in Taiwan’s support. Australia and Japan have come to realize that they will be the one’s caught up in war with China as US remains indifferent. Other powers like India and France are likely to chip in and support Taiwan in warding off Chinese aggression.