WASHINGTON – Two ambitions are at the heart of President Biden’s foreign policy agenda: rebuilding ties with frustrated allies and building a united front across China.
This week, he tries both while sending two of his most senior envoys to Japan and South Korea during his highest-level foreign trip since taking office in January.
The visits to the United States’ strongest partners in East Asia are a prelude to the opening of the Biden administration’s personal contact with Beijing. One of the envoys, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, will travel to Alaska and go with Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, to a meeting with China’s two top diplomats.
The government sees the meeting as an opportunity to establish ground rules and draw red lines for a relationship that Mr. Blinken called ‘the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century’. U.S. officials described it as a “one-time session” to identify issues where Washington could cooperate with Beijing – and then “in many candid terms outline the many concerns we have,” he said. Blinken told Congress last week.
The spate of diplomacy, which began on Friday with a virtual summit with US so-called Quad allies – Australia, India and Japan – sets the Asia-Pacific as a top priority for the Biden government after Barack Obama’s “pivot” Asia and Donald J. Trump’s straightforward transactional approach to alliances in the region.
The dialogue with the allies of less than two months on the new government also underscores the president’s goal of sharpening international partnerships to face opponents and in turn advance American interests.
“The more China hears, not just our depravity, but an outrage from around the world, the better the chance we will get change,” he said. Blinken said last week during a hearing in the House of Foreign Affairs in Washington.
It will not be easy. China, which was hit by the coronavirus early in the pandemic, only strengthened its economic position as rivals in the West struggled to recover. And militarily, it has narrowed the gap with the United States through large investments. These strengths have helped China advance the global stage.
Even as Washington tries to chart a new, if rather cautious, relationship with Beijing, U.S. officials on Friday underestimated the idea that China would overshadow the three days of talks in Tokyo and Seoul. It is expected that Mr. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III will discuss a range of topics, including the pandemic, climate change, and the large U.S. presence of troops in the region.
The relationship between Japan and South Korea, which has reached a low point over historical disputes, is likely to be a topic of discussion. The month-old military coup in Myanmar and North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs will also be on the agenda, which remains firmly in force after the Trump administration’s failed flirtation with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The decision to make Japan the first destination for Mr. Blinken and mr. Making Austin is seen as an important and reassuring development in Tokyo, which has worked hard to forge close ties with Mr. To maintain Trump, even though he has raised large payments to retain U.S. troops. in the country. On Friday, the White House announced that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga would be the first foreign leader to meet with Mr. Praying in Washington would meet.
“At the end of the Trump administration, with regard to Asia, we were arguing with our allies about how much we should pay for the cost-sharing in terms of defense,” said Victor Cha, who oversaw Asia’s policy in the White House during the George. W. Bush administration and advises the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We had a very one-sided view of alliances as a nation, almost a contemptuous view of it.”
“At the same time, Mr. Cha,” China is using its economic leverage across the region to bully other countries. “
The Trump administration has taken an often contradictory approach to China. Mr. Trump regularly flirted with his authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, as he tried to effect trade deals. At the same time, his government criticizes Beijing’s human rights abuses, military and cyberattacks, and attacks on democracy.
The Biden administration’s strategy can be just as dizzying. Mr. Blinken described that he wanted to seek a relationship that was immediately based on cooperation, competition and, if necessary, confrontation with China.
To make it work, the United States relies on the backing of allies such as Japan and South Korea. Both countries have tried to draw a fine line over China: their prosperity depends on trade with Beijing, but they break with China on issues of security, democracy and human rights.
Tokyo became more noisy as the Chinese army invaded islands that controlled Japan in the East China Sea, known in Japan as the Senkakus and in China as the Diaoyu. Seoul used its moderate relations with Beijing as a pressure tactic against North Korea, which is dependent on China to keep its economy afloat.
China’s leaders, for their part, have said they are eager to restore relations with the United States in a balanced way. Some analysts have warned that any steps towards a breakdown point could only take China more time to develop technological and military capabilities before a diplomatic collapse.
“Since two countries with different social systems China and the United States naturally have differences and differences of opinion,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a news conference in Beijing on March 7. Wang and Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, will meet with Mr. Blinken meets in Alaska.
Mr. Wang normally calls it a ‘healthy competition held on a fair and equitable basis with the aim of making self-improvement and mutual improvement, rather than giving finger pointing or a zero-sum competition.’
Yet Chinese leaders also appear concerned about the Biden strategy of rallying allies in a cohesive bloc against China, something that could harm Beijing politically and economically. Last week, for example, the Quad countries announced an attempt to send coronavirus vaccines to Southeast Asia, counteracting China’s own efforts to crack down on so-called vaccine diplomacy.
He also drew a ‘red line’ on the issue of Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims is an inalienable part of a larger China.
Days later, an American destroyer pulled through the Strait. The United States describes such travel as routine, but it is considered hostile by China. This was the third since Mr. Biden took office, indicating Taiwanese support.
While the Japanese officials certainly assured Mr. Austin is going to ask the US military to come to Japan’s aid in the event of a conflict with China over the Senkaku Islands, his time in Seoul is expected to be consumed with the question of whether he should resume. regular large-scale military exercises with South Korea, which Mr. Trump suddenly canceled.
Last week, the two countries reached a cost-sharing agreement to place U.S. troops in South Korea, a presence that Mr. Trump also threatened to quit.
After the meetings in Tokyo and Seoul, Mr. Austin travels to India, which is at its lowest point in relations with China in decades, following a deadly border attack last summer. Mr. Blinken will arrive in Alaska on Thursday for the meeting with the Chinese envoys.
Since he Mr. Blinking congratulations on the talks, Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the foreign affairs committee, warned that “we can not treat them like a normal opponent.”
“We are really in an ideological struggle that fights for democracy against authoritarianism and the promotion of freedom over oppression,” he said. McCaul said. He added that the United States had been keeping a blind eye to China’s ruling Communist Party for four decades, hoping to persuade its leaders to follow international standards.
“Unfortunately, it just did not work,” he said. McCaul said.
Lara Jakes and John Ismay reported from Washington, and Steven Lee Myers from Seoul.