US, Japan expand alliances in Indo-Pacific
President Biden meets PM Kishida, President Marcos Jr at the White House
Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stepped up to the podium inside the chamber of the US House of Representative on April 11. He was greeted with a standing ovation by more than 500 elected representatives and senators.
“Thank you,” Prime Minister Kishida said in English. “I never get such warm applause from the Japanese Diet.”
Members of Congress laughed and applauded again. Here was a leader of a US ally acknowledging the friction that comes with democracy. It was a warm moment that belies the jeopardy the US and its allies around the world now face which Kishida had come to address.
The world is at “a turning point” as “freedom and democracy are currently under threat around the globe,’ Kishida said.
“China's current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan but to the peace and stability of the international community at large,” Kishida said.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine raise the “real possibility” of nuclear “catastrophe,” Kishida warned.
A stronger, more confident and committed Japan stands with the United States as it seeks to preserve the liberal world order, he said.
Trilateral summit
President Joe Biden met at the White House in a trilateral summit on April 11 with Kishida and the Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Sending a message of deterrence squarely aimed at Beijing, the American leader reaffirmed the United States’ military alliances with Japan and the Philippines.
“The United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad. They’re ironclad,” Biden said.
The summit followed Prime Minister Kishida’s state dinner at the White House on April 10 in which the US and Japan toasted a formal upgrade their strategic alliance.
“For the first time, Japan and the United States and Australia will create a networked system of air, missile and defense architecture,” Biden said.
The US is drawing Japan into its AUKUS nuclear submarine development program with Australia and the United Kingdom intended to balance China’s rising naval power in the Pacific. Including the Philippines the next day in a summit with Japan draws additional attention to China’s aggressive maritime maneuvers in the Filipino waters of the South China Sea.
Chinese Coast Guard vessels have used water cannons and blocking movements to harass and intimidate Philippine patrols near the Second Thomas Shoal.
“As I said before, any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty,” Biden said.
It’s all part of a wider effort by the Biden administration to expand and strengthen multilateral alliances in the Indo-Pacific to counter perceived threats from China and North Korea.
China equips Russia: US Intel
Two senior Biden administration officials told reporters at the White House on April 12 that, according to US intelligence, China is selling machine tools, microelectronics and technology to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.
In 2023 about 90 percent of Russia’s microelectronics came from China, which Russia has used to make missiles, tanks, and aircraft, according to an AP report. Nearly 70 percent of Russia’s approximately $900 million in machine tool imports in the last quarter of 2023 came from China.
Chinese and Russian entities have jointly produced unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia, and Chinese companies are likely providing Russia with chemical propellants for rockets, the officials said. China-based Wuhan Global Sensor Technology Co., Wuhan Tongsheng Technology Co. Ltd. and Hikvision are providing optical components for use in Russian tanks and armored vehicles, the AP reported.
Yellen in Beijing
The Washington meetings follow a visit to Beijing by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on April 5-8 to talk trade and economics. Yellen communicated to senior Chinese leadership the Biden administration will not allow China to dump subsidized electric vehicles in the US.
“China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity,” she told reporters at a Beijing press conference. “Actions taken by the PRC today can shift world prices. And when the global market is flooded by artificially cheap Chinese products, the viability of American and other foreign firms is put into question.”
Beijing urged Washington not to politicize trade or take protectionist measures. “It is hoped that the United States will abide by the basic norms of market economy,” Premier Li Qiang told Secretary Yellen on Sunday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
US flexes military exercises
In a show of force, the US, Australia, Japan, and the Philippines staged their first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea on April 7, including anti-submarine warfare training.
US Admiral John Aquilino, the head of the Indo-Pacific Command, told a forum at the Lowy Institute, a think tank in Sydney, Australia. Aquilino said he was “very concerned about what’s happening at the Second Thomas Shoal.”
“I’m very, very concerned about the direction it’s going,” Aquilino said the Associated Press reported. “These actions are dangerous, illegal and they are destabilizing the region.”
“What’s next and how far are they willing to go in that area?” Aquilino questioned.
Biden-Xi Call
Biden and XI had spoken by telephone on April 2 in a follow up to their meeting in California last year. Notably, “President Biden emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
Biden raised concerns over the PRC’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and its impact on European and transatlantic security, and he emphasized the United States’ enduring commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” according to a White House readout of the call.
Xi emphasized China’s claims to sovereignty over Taiwan and advised “China is not going to sit back and watch” while the US supports Taiwan’s independence and seeks to suppress China’s trade and technology development, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. “This is not ‘de-risking,’ but creating risks.”
Nevertheless, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, “The China-US relationship is beginning to stabilize, and this is welcomed by both societies and the international community.” The US side characterized the phone call as “candid and constructive” while the Chinese called it “candid and in-depth.”
China's CPI weak
China's consumer inflation cooled in March, while producer price deflation persisted, the Reuters news service reported from Beijing on April 11.
Deflationary pressures appear to be slowly easing, but the protracted property crisis continues to weigh on consumer and business confidence.
The data maintains pressure on policymakers to launch more stimulus as demand remains weak, Reuters reported. Economists warned of distortions in the numbers from the Lunar New Year.
"Seasonal effects definitely played a role - food prices rose sharply during the Chinese New Year in February and subsequently came back down," Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Reuters.
US-China flights opposed
US airlines and aviation unions have urged the Biden administration to pause approvals of additional flights between China and the United States, citing ongoing "anti-competitive policies of the Chinese government," Reuters reported.
US Representative Mike Gallagher, chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the panel's top Democrat, also urged the Biden administration in a separate letter not to approve more flights until China abides "by its existing bilateral agreement, and passenger demand begins to recover."
In February, the US Transportation Department has authorized 50 weekly round-trip flights to the US as of March 31, up from the previous 35 but still only a third of pre-pandemic levels, according to Reuters. US carriers also were authorized to fly 50 flights per week but are currently not using all those flights.
The apparent friction over air carrier access and fair practices is a setback for attempts by Biden and Xi in their recent meetings to foster greater people-to-people exchanges.
— William Roberts