U.S. President Joe Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House on April 16, and both sides reaffirmed the U.S.-Japan alliance and their joint efforts to address the Chinese Communist challenge.
Expert analysis indicates that the current U.S. policy of uniting allies against the Communist Party has emboldened the Chinese Communist Party. In response, Beijing has sought to strengthen ties with partners such as Russia, Iran and North Korea in an attempt to “warm up” to these authoritarian states and use sanctions and threats to try to undermine the anti-communist alliance the U.S. is forging.
U.S. Allied Diplomacy Worries Communist China
Reuters published an analytical article on April 19. The article quoted diplomats and analysts as saying that what worries Beijing is that the Biden administration has gotten other democracies to take a hard line against a rising, more globally arbitrary Communist Party on human rights and regional security issues, such as the disputed South China Sea.
In a statement to Reuters, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it has always firmly opposed the U.S. side’s “bloc politics” along ideological lines and the formation of anti-China (anti-communist) cliques. The Chinese Foreign Ministry also urged other countries not to join the United States.
After stormy talks between top U.S. and Chinese diplomats in Alaska last month, Beijing also appears to be more eager to reach out to countries like Russia, Iran and North Korea, all of which are on the wrong side of the U.S.-led sanctions.
Reuters quoted Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, as saying. “China (the Chinese Communist Party) is very worried about U.S. allied diplomacy.” He noted that China is trying to “cuddle up” with governments that the West does not like.
The U.S.-China meeting in Alaska came just days after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who called on Moscow and Beijing to push back against the so-called Western ideological agenda.
A week later, Wang Yi flew to Iran and signed a 25-year economic agreement. This effectively subjects every Chinese company involved in cooperation with Iran to direct or indirect U.S. sanctions, said Shi Yinhong, a professor at Renmin University.
Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping exchanged messages with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for deeper ties with North Korea. North Korea is another country under international sanctions for pursuing nuclear weapons development.
In addition to trying to strengthen ties with Iran, Russia and North Korea, the Chinese Communist Party is also drawing in its neighbors who are economically dependent on China. In recent weeks, Wang Yi has hosted foreign ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea in China’s Fujian province.
Li Mingjiang said Beijing will make promises to help these countries recover economically after the COVID-19 pandemic, making them think twice about siding with the United States.
U.S. and Japanese heads meet to form anti-communist front
Biden continues to press Beijing on many of the same issues as the Trump administration, but with a more alliance-focused strategy.
In a meeting last Friday (April 16) between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the two countries formed an anti-communist front on issues ranging from Japan’s disputed Senkaku Islands (known on the mainland as the Diaoyu Islands) and Hong Kong to human rights issues in Xinjiang. In addition, the two leaders made a point of agreeing on “the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Biden and Kan also agreed to jointly invest $4.5 billion in the development of the next-generation communications technology, 6G or “beyond5G,” and to compete with the Chinese Communist Party in setting global standards.
Last month, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada took coordinated action to sanction Chinese Communist Party officials and entities for human rights violations in Xinjiang. Meanwhile more than a dozen countries have joined together to accuse the CCP of withholding information about investigations into the source of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and France have all recently joined the United States in sending warships through the disputed South China Sea, or have announced plans to do so.
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are being boycotted by parliamentarians from several countries and international human rights groups because of the Communist Party’s poor human rights record, and the International Olympic Committee is being urged to move the games out of Beijing.
Western Countries Join Forces, Chinese Communist Party Pissed Off
The Chinese Communist Party has responded angrily to a show of solidarity from its Washington allies. Chinese diplomats called Japan a “subordinate” to the United States and called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “lapdog” of the United States.
According to Reuters, the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy to weaken this unity is to encourage U.S. allies to engage independently with Beijing and put economic interests first, while retaliating against them if they take joint action against the Chinese Communist Party.
Analysts say Beijing’s response to EU sanctions against Chinese Communist Party officials over Xinjiang with disproportionately harsh counter-sanctions could derail a long-awaited Europe-China investment deal.
Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, argues that Beijing is prepared to sacrifice economic interests for core interests if they are threatened by the U.S.-European alliance.
Xi conveyed this message to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a recent phone call with her. Xi expressed his hope that “the EU will make a correct judgment about its independence.
But Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, said China still needs European technology and investment.
At the same time, Beijing has not given up on convincing Washington that cooperation is better than competition. This was demonstrated last week when Beijing assured U.S. climate envoy John Kerry of its support for Biden’s videoconference climate summit this week. Meanwhile, the two sides issued a joint statement on April 17 saying the two countries agreed to work together on climate change with seriousness and urgency.
Kerry, however, expressed skepticism that the Communist Party would be able to act and implement concrete actions to reduce emissions.
“The key is not that piece of paper, the key is the actions that people take in the coming months.” Kerry said at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, April 18.
Kerry commented that the joint statement was written “tough,” but “what I’ve learned in diplomacy is that you don’t bet on words, you bet on action, and we all need to see what happens.
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