In multiple messages, Biden warns China over expansionism
28 January, 2021
One week in to the job, US President Joe Biden has sent a distinct warning to Beijing against any expansionist intentions on East and Southeast Asia.
In multiple calls and statements, he and his leading security officials possess underscored support for allies Japan, Southern Korea and Taiwan, signalling Washington's rejection of China's disputed territorial claims in those areas.
On Wednesday (Jan 27), Biden told Japanese Primary Minister Yoshihide Suga that his administration is committed to defending Japan, including the Senkaku Islands, which are claimed both by Japan and China, which phone calls them the Diaoyu Islands.
That stance was echoed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who told Japanese counterpart Nobuo Kishi on Saturday that the contested islands were included in the US-Japan Security Treaty.
Austin affirmed that the United States "remains against any unilateral tries to improve the status quo in the East China Sea", according to a good Pentagon affirmation on the call.
In his first overseas contacts after taking office, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (pictured January 22, 2021) included not merely Japan but also counterparts in Australia, South Korea and India AFP/Brendan SMIALOWSKI
Meanwhile, three days in to the Biden administration, State Department spokesman Ned Selling price warned China about menacing Taiwan after it repeatedly delivered more than a dozen military fighters and bombers through the island's air security zone.
"We will stand with close friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity protection and ideals in the Indo-Pacific region - and which includes deepening our ties with Democratic Taiwan," Value said in a declaration.
"Our dedication to Taiwan is rock-solid."
Those comments and other folks sought to emphasise that the new Biden administration will not deviate from the firm security stance towards China that it inherited from ex-president Donald Trump.
"A FREE OF CHARGE AND OPEN INDO-PACIFIC"
Washington has longer sided with allies such as South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia in rejecting disputed Chinese territorial claims in the East China Sea and South China Sea.
But the Trump administration raised the tone of this rejection when then-secretary of express Mike Pompeo declared last July that most of Beijing's maritime promises in the South China Sea were "completely unlawful".
In his 1st overseas contacts after taking office, Austin included not merely Japan but also counterparts in Australia, South Korea and India.
Over the past 3 years, Washington has expanded defense cooperation with India, which sees China posing a military threat equally on its northern border and in the seas south.
In a call with Indian security minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday, Austin observed that the two countries' defense partnership "is made after shared values and a common interest in making sure the Indo-Pacific region continues to be free and open", said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
An identical China-directed refrain echoed through Austin's phone with Australian security minister Linda Reynolds on Tuesday.
Austin "emphasised the importance of maintaining a free of charge and start Indo-Pacific, founded on existing international law and norms in an area free of malign tendencies", Kirby said.
To underscore the unchanged US stance in Asia, in Jan 24, the fourth day of the brand new Biden administration, the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt embarked about a so-called "freedom of navigation" mission in the South China Sea, sailing in or near waters that China promises to underscore Washington's rejection of these claims.
In addition, even while his initial focus for the US Defense Section is battling the coronavirus, Austin is likely to get Asia his primary destination on a global trip.
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