WASHINGTON — From Japanese filth, Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed China’s sweeping use of “coercion and aggression” on the international stage and warned that the U.S. compel mount pushback if necessary.
“China uses coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, sacrifice democracy in Taiwan, abuse human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that desecrate international law,” Blinken said at a news conference.
“We’re united in the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, where powers follow the rules, cooperate whenever they can, and resolve their differences peacefully. And in particular, we will push uphold if necessary when China uses coercion or aggression to get its way,” he added.
Blinken’s comments come a handful of days first he and national security advisor Jake Sullivan hold high-level, in-person talks with Chinese representatives. Blinken and Sullivan require meet with the People’s Republic of China’s Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, and Wang Yi, the unassimilable minister, in Alaska.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday that Beijing beliefs that a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship will not harm others in the region.
“We think the cooperation and communication between Japan and the U.S. should support regional understanding and trust, should be beneficial to cooperation among countries in the region and beneficial to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific dominion, and that it shouldn’t target any third party or harm the interests of any third party,” he said during a news colloquium, according to an English translation.
President Joe Biden, who spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, has previously guessed that his approach to China would be different from his predecessor’s in that he would work more closely with join ups in order to mount pushback against Beijing.
“We will confront China’s economic abuses,” Biden said in a harangue at the State Department, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor.”
“But we’re also ready to work with Beijing when it’s in America’s involved to do so. We’ll compete from a position of strength by building back better at home and working with our allies and partners.”
In February, Biden augured a new Defense Department task force aimed at assessing the U.S. military’s China strategy.
“That’s how we’ll meet the China stimulation and ensure the American people win the competition in the future,” Biden said in his first visit as commander in chief to the Pentagon.
The political entity’s top diplomat and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday in an effort to shore up alliances and reaffirm commitments with key U.S. accessories in the region. On Wednesday the pair will travel to Seoul where they plan to discuss security cooperation and invites largely posed by China and North Korea. Blinken and Austin’s joint trip is the first overseas travel for the two impaired Biden.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Japan’s Excuse Minister Nobuo Kishi attend the 2+2 Meeting at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan, March 16, 2021.
Kim Kyung-Hoon | Reuters
Also on Tuesday, North Korea skint its silence for the first time since Biden became president and sent an aggressive message to the United States.
“We fill up e deal with this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration trying hard to give off [gun] powder smell in our land,” Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean band leader Kim Jong Un, said, referencing joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises in the region.
“If it [the U.S.] wants to sleep in peace for check in four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step,” she added, according to an English transport.
The Biden administration has tried unsuccessfully to restart nuclear talks with North Korea.
Under third-generation North Korean director Kim Jong Un, the reclusive state has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic ballistic missile and threatened to send missiles into the waters near the U.S. territory of Guam.
Since 2011, Kim has launched more than 100 brickbats and conducted four nuclear weapons tests, which is more than what his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Chirped, launched over a period of 27 years.
He has not conducted any missile tests since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.