WASHINGTON – Two ambitions are at the heart of President Biden’s foreign policy agenda: rebuilding ties with frustrated allies and building a united front in China.
This week, he is trying to do both by dispatching two of his most important envoys to Japan and South Korea on a trip abroad at the highest level of his government since taking office in January.
Visits to the United States’ strongest partners in East Asia are a prelude to the Biden government’s first round of personal contact with Beijing. One of the envoys, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, will travel to Alaska and join Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, in a meeting with China’s two top diplomats.
The government sees the meeting as a chance to establish ground rules and set boundaries for a relationship that Blinken called “the greatest geopolitical test of the 21st century”. American officials described it as “a single session” to identify issues on which Washington can work with Beijing – and then “expose, in very frank terms, the many concerns we have,” Blinken told Congress last week.
The wave of diplomacy, which began on Friday with a virtual summit with so-called US Quad allies – Australia, India and Japan – establishes Asia-Pacific as a priority for the Biden government after Barack Obama’s “pivot” for Donald J. Trump’s direct transactional approach to alliances in the region.
The dialogue with allies with less than two months from the start of the new government also reinforces the president’s objective of strengthening international partnerships to face adversaries and, in turn, to promote American interests.
“The more China hears, not just our disgrace, but a course of disgrace from around the world, the better the chance of getting some changes,” Blinken said at a hearing on the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington last week.
It will not be easy. China, having brought the coronavirus under control at the start of the pandemic, has only strengthened its economic position as its rivals in the West struggle to recover. And militarily, it narrowed the gap with the United States through huge investments. These strengths helped to encourage China on the global stage.
Even as Washington tries to chart a new, albeit still cautious, relationship with Beijing, American officials on Friday played down the notion that China would overshadow the three days of discussions in Tokyo and Seoul. Mr. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III are expected to discuss a number of issues, including the pandemic, climate change and the large presence of American troops in the region.
Relations between Japan and South Korea, which have reached a low point due to historical disputes, are likely to be a topic of conversation. Also on the agenda will be a month-long military coup in Myanmar and North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, which remain firm after Trump’s failed flirtation with the leader of the North, Kim Jong-un.
The decision to make Japan the first destination for Blinken and Austin was seen as a significant and reassuring development in Tokyo, which worked hard to maintain close ties with Trump, even when he demanded huge increases in payments to keep American troops in the country. On Friday, the White House announced that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga would be the first foreign leader to meet with Biden in Washington.
“At the end of the Trump administration, with respect to Asia, we were discussing with our allies about how much to pay for the defense cost division,” said Victor Cha, who oversaw Asia’s policy at the White House during the George W. Administration. Bush and advises the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We had a very one-sided view when it came to alliances as a nation, almost a disdainful view of them.”
“At the same time,” said Cha, “China was using its economic influence across the region to intimidate other countries.”
The Trump administration has taken an often contradictory approach towards China. Trump often praised his authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, as he tried to close trade deals. At the same time, his government criticized human rights abuses in Beijing, military and cyberspace incursions and attacks on democracy.
The Biden government’s strategy can be equally stunning. Mr. Blinken described the search for a relationship based at the same time on cooperation, competition and, as necessary, confrontation with China.
To make this work, the United States has the support of allies such as Japan and South Korea. Both countries have tried to step on the fine line with China: their prosperity depends on trade with Beijing, but they break with China on security issues. , democracy and human rights.
Tokyo became louder as the Chinese military made inroads around Japan-administered islands in the East China Sea, known in Japan as Senkakus and in China as Diaoyu. Seoul used its moderate relations with Beijing as a pressure tactic against North Korea, which depends on China to keep its economy afloat.
In turn, China’s leaders said they were eager to rebalance their relationship with the United States. Some analysts warned that any move towards detente could only give China more time to develop technological and military capabilities before a diplomatic collapse.
“As two countries with different social systems, China and the United States naturally have differences and disagreements,” said Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, at a news conference in Beijing on March 7. Wang and Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, will meet Mr. Blinken in Alaska.
Mr. Wang considered it normal to have “healthy competition on a fair and just basis for the purpose of self-improvement and mutual improvement, rather than accusatory or zero-sum competition”.
Even so, Chinese leaders also seem concerned about Biden’s strategy of bringing allies together in a coherent bloc against China, something that could harm Beijing politically and economically. Last week, for example, Quad countries announced an effort to send coronavirus vaccines to Southeast Asia, counteracting China’s own efforts in so-called vaccine diplomacy.
He also drew a “red line” on the issue of Taiwan, the autonomous and democratic island that Beijing claims to be an inalienable part of a great China.
Days later, an American destroyer passed through the Taiwan Straits. The United States describes these trips as routine, but is viewed as hostile by China. It was the third since Biden took office, signaling Taiwan’s support.
While Japanese officials are certainly seeking assurances from Austin that the US military will come to Japan’s aid in the event of a conflict with China over the Senkaku Islands, it is expected that his time in Seoul will be consumed with the question of resuming regular military exercises large-scale talks with South Korea, which Trump abruptly canceled.
Last week, the two countries reached a cost-sharing agreement to station American troops in South Korea, a presence that Trump also threatened to end.
After the meetings in Tokyo and Seoul, Austin will travel to India, which has been at its lowest point in relations with China in decades after a deadly foray into the border last summer. Blinken will arrive in Alaska on Thursday for a meeting with the Chinese envoys.
Wishing Mr. Blinken luck in the negotiations, Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the main Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that “we cannot treat them as normal opponents”.
“We are really in an ideological struggle fighting for democracy against authoritarianism and promoting freedom from oppression,” said McCaul. He added that for four decades the United States “turned a blind eye” to the ruling Communist Party of China, hoping to persuade its leaders to follow international norms.
“Unfortunately, it just didn’t work,” said McCaul.
Lara Jakes and John Ismay reported from Washington, and Steven Lee Myers from Seoul.