WASHINGTON – Japan’s President Biden and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday pledged to work together on the rapid development of 5G communications technologies to prevent one of China’s leading companies from dominating the world market, a symbolic first step in forming an alliance sharp that withered during the Trump administration.
The agreement was one of the predetermined results of the first visit of a foreign leader to the White House, Mr. Biden, after three months in which he only spoke by telephone or video conference with his overseas counterparts. For mr. Suga, to just be with mr. Biden’s appearance in the Rose Garden – where the president initially and erroneously called him “Yosi” instead of “Yoshi” – was proof that he had managed to maintain Japan’s most important international relationship, despite one of the most difficult presidential transitions in history.
“Our commitment to meet in person is an indication of the importance, the value we both attach to this relationship,” he said. Biden said. “We are going to work together to prove that democracies can still compete and win in the 21st century.”
But the subtext of the meeting responded to the influence of China and its aggressive actions in the Indian Pacific and beyond – which Mr. Biden is considered one of the most important challenges of his tenure. And it was a meticulous dance, with Japanese officials wary of being drawn into the tension with Beijing over Taiwan, the South China Sea and the rapid rift between the West’s open internet and a closed by the Chinese government.
At one point that Mr. Biden drew lines in the sand and promised to compete with the Chinese government where it can and where it needs to confront, Mr. Suga, unsurprisingly, tries to water down any sense of rivalry.
Mr. Biden said the two countries are “working together in a variety of areas”, including the promotion of secure and reliable 5G networks, a technology that promises to revolutionize the speed and usefulness of high-speed cellular connections in factories and hard work. to reach rural areas. It is also a technology in which the United States was virtually absent, while one of Beijing’s leading companies, Huawei, with the support of the Chinese government, wired large parts of Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. .
The advisers of mr. Biden warned that if the United States does not catch up with allies in a race, the results could be disastrous for national security: more and more of the world’s internet traffic and conversations will flow through circuits controlled by Beijing. Aides said Japan and the United States would spend $ 2 billion on a joint project to develop alternative approaches – a remarkable shift from the 1980s, when they saw each other as powerful technological rivals.
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“Japan and the United States are both deeply invested in innovation and looking to the future,” he said. Biden said. “This includes making sure we invest in and protect the technologies that will maintain and sharpen our competitive advantage, and that these technologies are governed by shared democratic norms that we both share – norms through democracies, not autocracies.”
It is surprising that Mr. Suga carefully retained his text when talking about ‘China’s influence’, saying: ‘we agreed to change the status quo by force or coercion in the Eastern and South China Sea and the intimidation of others in the region. “Later, Mr. Suga a single, direct reference to Taiwan, at a time when the democratic island, still considered by Beijing to be a rogue province, is repeatedly buzzing by Chinese warplanes.
When he issued no warnings to China, he simply said the two leaders agreed to “the importance of peace and stability” of the Strait of Taiwan. It was a language deliberately drawn 52 years ago, when President Richard M. Nixon and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato issued a statement in which the Japanese leader said that ‘maintaining peace and security in the Taiwan area is also important. for peace and security of Japan. ”
While the two leaders asked questions of reporters, Mr. Biden questioned about gun control after another mass shooting left eight dead at a FedEx plant in Indianapolis. Earlier in the day, Mr. Suga – whose country bans almost all weapons and reports some of the lowest gun crime in the world – expresses its condolences. In the Rose Garden, he stood still when the president requested a ban on assault weapons.
Mr. Suga then poses its own question on whether Japan will cancel the Olympics this year, which will be held in Tokyo in July, when many public health experts claim there is no safe way to move forward. given the coronavirus.
“I have told the President of my determination to realize the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo this summer as a symbol of global unity,” he said. Suga said. “President Biden has once again expressed his support for this determination.”
The Biden government has also urged the Japanese government to stand with the United States in announcing new promises for greenhouse gas emissions, to reach a net emissions target by 2050. According to two government officials, the White House urged Japan to reduce emissions by the end of the decade in mid-2013.
Officials had hoped that Japan would put an end to the financing of the development of coal plants abroad on Friday, but Mr. Suga did not commit to it.