Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo on Tuesday. The US and Japan released a joint statement on the meeting where they slammed China and said the two countries are committed to opposing Beijing in the region.
“The United States and Japan acknowledged that China’s behavior, where inconsistent with the existing international order, presents political, economic, military, and technological challenges to the Alliance and to the international community,” the statement said.
The officials “committed to opposing coercion and destabilizing behavior toward others in the region, which undermines the rules-based international system.”
The officials reaffirmed Washington’s “unwavering commitment” to defend Japan and also reaffirmed that the Senkaku Islands are covered under the US-Japan mutual defense treaty. The Senkaku Islands, or Diaoyus as they are known in China, are Japanese-controlled uninhabited islands that are also claimed by China and Taiwan.
Chinese coast guard vessels occasionally enter waters near the Senkaku Islands, drawing protests from Tokyo and warnings from Washington. Austin and Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi agreed that US and Japanese forces will continue to conduct joint military drills in the East China Sea.
The visit to Tokyo comes a few days before Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet with China’s top two diplomats in Anchorage, Alaska. The US and Beijing are taking different approaches to the talks that will begin on Thursday.
The Biden administration is presenting the Anchorage meeting as a forum to confront China on all sorts of issues, while Beijing is hoping it will be a platform to reset relations with the US.
China should get a good yawn out of the US-Japan meeting.
. . .from the Joint Press Statement–
China presents political, economic, military, and technological challenges, so the Ministers expressed and shared serious concerns, and reiterated their objections.//
Meanwhile China is cleaning their clocks in Asia, politically, commercially and militarily, while remaining the chief trader with both countries.
Japan insured that there are two if-clauses in the statement. Japan is being wise. So is India. Very agreeable under pressure. But non-committed.
China is their largest trading partner. Japan’s economy would collapse without exporting to China.
Today of top ten world’s corporations three are Chinese, two American, and one each from
Netherlands, UK, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Japan. Three Chinese, Dutch, UK, and Saudi companies are in energy. Japanese is Toyota, German Volkswagen, and American Walmart and Amazon. Good luck competing with China that beat epidemic while we run in circles.
So did SK, Vietnam, Indonesia.
China loves that. Talk about chutzpah.
China has a long memory of the brutality of Japan in the 1930’s, 40’s. Thanks to that brutality, Communism took root in China.
The “international order” defined and dictated by who?
Ahhh … more Orwellian blather about America and its imperial vassals defending the so-called Rules-Based International Order.
To which one must reply: you mean like America’s coercive and destabilizing wars of aggression against Iraq, Libya, Serbia, Syria, Afghanistan, or the fake “War on Terrorism” in general, which has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people and turned millions of people into refugees?
US War on Terror Kills Nearly 500,000 in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan
https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/us-war-terror-kills-nearly-500000-afghanistan-iraq-pakistan
God Bless America’s Blood-Soaked Imperial Disorder!