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Biden hosts Japan PM Yoshihide Suga amid US-China tensions

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Friday hosted Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House for talks focused on containing China’s economic and military expansion.

Suga, the first foreign leader to meet in-person with Biden, said that they also privately discussed an increase in reported anti-Asian prejudice in the United States.Biden said during a Rose Garden press conference with Suga that they agreed to cooperate to counter China. “Today, we’re announcing the new competitive and reliance partnership,” Biden said.

Biden said that the US and Japan will work together on ending the COVID-19 pandemic and “defending advancing our shared values, including human rights and the rule of law.”
He said the two countries will work to “reform of the World Health Organization,” which former President Donald Trump said allowed COVID-19 to spread by credulously accepting bogus Chinese data on the initial outbreak.

Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in the ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Susan Walsh/AP

Biden also implied the US and Japan will work to discourage other countries from using Chinese telecom giant Huawei to build 5G infrastructure over security concerns. The Trump administration successfully lobbied many US allies to ban Huawei.

“We’re going to work together across a range of fields for promoting secure, reliable 5G networks to increasing our cooperation on supply chains for critical sectors like semiconductors to driving joint research in areas like AI, genomics, quantum computing and much more,” Biden said.

Suga, who replaced longtime Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year, faced a stern warning from China’s government ahead of his visit.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who berated US diplomats in Alaska last month, phoned his Japanese counterpart to demand that Japan not “get involved in the so-called confrontation between major countries,” according to a Chinese press release.

Japan has been a key American ally in East Asia since World War II and the US government has sought to build on the relationship by recently forming a “Quad” alliance of democracies near China, including the US, Japan, Australia and India.

Suga replaced Shinzo Abe as Japanese prime minister last year. Mandel Ngan via Getty Images

Suga’s visit got off to a jarring start with Vice President Kamala Harris in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. As Harris introduced Suga to TV cameras, two fighter jets flew low over the building as part of a poorly advertised celebration at a nearby World War I memorial, forcing the seemingly surprised vice president to halt her remarks.

Later, Suga enjoyed the pomp of traveling by motorcade down the White House driveway to the north door of the West Wing to meet with the president. But Biden discontinued his predecessor’s habit of greeting foreign leaders on the driveway for a handshake and Suga was instead welcomed by the White House chief of protocol, according to a pool report.

Suga also wasn’t treated to a meal with Biden due to COVID-19. And although Biden has been vaccinated against the virus, he wore two masks while seated across a table from Suga during indoor talks. 

Suga said in the Rose Garden, through a translator, that he was satisfied with Biden’s concern about anti-Asian hate crimes.

“I discussed the increase of discriminations or violences against Asian people across the US with President Biden and agreed that discrimination by race cannot be permitted in any societies,” Suga said.

President Biden has thus far not changed many of former President Donald Trump’s policies toward China. Andrew Harnik/AP

“We agreed on this regard. President Biden’s comment that the discriminations and violences cannot be allowed, and that he firmly opposes [them], was extremely encouraging for me and that has renewed my confidence in American democracy once again.”

Suga said that he and Biden “had serious talks on China’s influence over the peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific and the world at large. We agreed to oppose any attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China Seas and [China’s] intimidation of others in the region.”

Suga also said he was determined to host the Olympics in Tokyo this summer and that Biden “expressed his support,” despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden’s initial visits from foreign leaders reflects regional concern about China. His second foreign leader visit will occur next month with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Biden so far has kept many of Trump’s policies toward China. He has not relaxed tariffs on Chinese goods or repealed sanctions against officials for eliminating Hong Kong’s autonomy and mistreating Uighur Muslims.

Trump claimed during the presidential campaign last year that China would “own” the US if Biden won, in part because of his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China.

As president, Trump at first cultivated a relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and joked that he would like to make himself “president for life” as the Communist leader had done. But he also developed a close relationship with Abe, often remarking fondly of his bond with “Shinzo,” using the leader’s first name.

US-China relations soured with a Trump-waged trade war aimed at forcing a deal to reform Chinese economic policies — and plunged further last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in China.

Trump vowed to “decouple” the US and China economically in response to deception in early data on COVID-19. And the Trump administration worked to convince allies to ban Chinese telecom firm Huawei from 5G infrastructure projects.

Biden’s administration has faced Republican criticism for a perceived softening of tone toward China.

Biden delegates last month sat through an anti-American diatribe by Chinese officials on US soil after Biden rejoined the World Health Organization without insisting on reforms. The WHO subsequently produced a controversial COVID-19 origins report after an investigation controlled by China.

Unlike Trump, Biden has not spoken with Taiwanese leaders since his election victory. But amid escalating rhetoric about reunification from mainland China, a sitting US ambassador — to Palau — last month visited Taiwan in the first official US diplomatic visit since the US cut diplomatic ties with Taipei in the 1970s.