US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in Japan on their first overseas trip, looking to rally key Asian allies as a bulwark to China.
The pair, who traveled separately, met in Japan for the first leg of their trip, holding talks with their counterparts, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
They both plan to continue on to South Korea, before Austin heads separately to India and Blinken holds talks back in the US with Chinese officials.
Photo: AFP
US President Joe Biden’s team has been deliberately slow to start the usually hectic pace of diplomatic travel that marks a new administration, hoping to set an example discouraging travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the administration has also made clear it wants to reset US relations with the rest of the world, particularly traditional allies.
In a joint opinion piece in the Washington Post yesterday, Austin and Blinken said that they would look to “revitalize our ties with friends and partners.”
The visit is also about presenting a united front on the challenges posed by China.
“Our combined power makes us stronger when we must push back against China’s aggression and threats,” they wrote. “Together, we will hold China accountable when it abuses human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, systematically erodes autonomy in Hong Kong, undercuts democracy in Taiwan or asserts maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law. If we don’t act decisively and lead, Beijing will.”
Speaking in Hawaii before heading to Japan, Austin said that he and Blinken would be “listening and learning,” as well as looking to enhance US military capacity with allies to increase Washington’s “competitive edge” over Beijing.
“Our goal is to make sure that we have the capabilities and the operational plans ... to be able to offer a credible deterrence to China or anybody else who would want to take on the US,” he said.
A senior US defense official, speaking to reporters traveling with Austin, said discussions with Japanese officials would include talks on “China’s role in the region, China’s behavior in the region.”
Beijing’s increased presence in the waters around the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — administered by Japan as the Senkakus, but also claimed by Taiwan and China — would also be on the table.
“That’s an important part of the conversation because we have treaty commitments with Japan,” the official said, referring to US defense obligations to Japan under a joint security treaty. “It’s a sensitive part of the conversation that we’ll have.”
The pair arrive in Asia after an unprecedented summit of the leaders of the so-called “Quad” — an informal alliance of the US, Japan, India and Australia, seen as a counterbalance to China’s influence.
Blinken’s events in Tokyo and Seoul are to be largely virtual, with addresses to Japanese business leaders and journalists by videoconference, though his talks with officials are to be in person.
In Seoul, he is to consult on Biden’s review of policy toward Pyongyang in the wake of former US president Donald Trump’s summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS