The US is pressing the need for allies to coordinate against economic coercion, not just military threats, as Japan prepares to host top diplomats from the G7 nations amid heightened tensions with China.
“That coercion piece is important,” US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said in an interview days before the ministerial meeting begins in the mountain resort of Karuizawa tomorrow. “It keeps the United States in the center of gravity, and helps our allies and alliance and our friends to know that we are in the game.”
China is set to be a key focus of discussions at the meeting, which is to lay the groundwork for a leaders’ summit in Hiroshima next month.
Photo: Reuters
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has invited a raft of guest leaders from Asia and beyond, including from South Africa and South Korea.
One person who was not invited was Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who has been on a diplomatic charm offensive of late in a bid to push for peace in Ukraine and attract more foreign investment to the world’s second-biggest economy following isolation due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Japan has put an emphasis on economic coercion and is aiming for outcomes by the leaders’ summit, people familiar with the deliberations said.
Meanwhile, US Representative Michael McCaul, who chairs the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, has blasted Beijing for what he sees as an unjust pressure campaign.
“Coercion is core to China’s economic model,” McCaul said during a visit to Asia this month.
Xi last week hosted French President Emmanuel Macron, who was forced to defend comments to the media that Europe should not simply follow the US over Taiwan.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was to meet Xi in Beijing yesterday, this week called on BRICS nations to come up with an alternative to the US dollar in foreign trade.
The G7 is to look to refocus the discussion on Chinese economic coercion.
Trade ministers said in a statement earlier this month that they would seek ways to work together to counter coercion that “undermines economic security.”
While that statement did not mention China, it follows a campaign by the administration of US President Joe Biden to corral support from allies in reducing dependence on Beijing for key elements in supply chains, such as semiconductors.
Japan last month became the latest to announce restrictions on exports of some of its most advanced chip technology, following similar moves by the US and the Netherlands.
Emanuel said that China’s strategy on coercion was “part of a defense build-up” and not “some aberration.”
In an analysis on the topic distributed to media, he said that a long list of countries including Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia had encountered coercion from China in the recent past.
The G7 and the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity are potential forums for formalizing rules on how to deal with the issue, Emanuel said in the interview.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort