On his first Asian trip as president, Joe Biden will visit Japan and South Korea, sending a strong warning to China, according to aides and analysts: don’t try what Russia did in Ukraine elsewhere in Asia, certainly not in Taiwan.
Biden leaves on Thursday for the five-day trip after months of rallying allies to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow refers to as a ‘special operation.’
In Seoul, he talks with new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and in Tokyo, he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, both of whom share concerns about North Korea and China and are anxious to strengthen their long-standing connections with Washington.
According to Evan Medeiros, an Asia specialist in the Obama administration, ‘at its core, this (travel) is about building out the alliance network in East Asia,’ in part to resist any Chinese actions against Taiwan.
The broad penalties that Biden pushed against Russia would be more difficult to implement against China. China is South Korea’s greatest trading partner and the largest source of products imported by Japan, far outnumbering the United States.
Even while US intelligence detects preparations underway, Biden’s message is complicated by the fact that his administration has not spelled out a plan to fight Beijing if it tries to reclaim the self-governed island of Taiwan.
Similarly, there is no public strategy in place to oppose Beijing’s no-COVID policy, which some analysts say may trigger a worldwide recession.
Despite these flaws, Seoul and Tokyo are more supportive of Washington than they have been in recent years.
‘The president is fortunate in who he has as counterparts,’ said Michael Green, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ‘I was doing the arithmetic on this, and it’s been at least 20 years since an American president could come to Japan and Korea and count on both nations’ leaders being so openly pro-alliance.’
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