Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has pledged to modernise his country’s military alongside US president Joe Biden, warning that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had opened a dangerous new era and could embolden China. Welcoming Kishida at the White House, Biden hailed the Japanese government’s announcement last month that it will double defence spending over the next five years and develop new capabilities. “Let me be crystal clear: the United States is fully, thoroughly, completely committed to the alliance and more importantly to Japan’s defence,” Biden said. Japan has been officially…
Tag: US foreign policy
Attack from space would trigger collective defence, say US and Japan, amid China fears
The US and Japan have said that an attack in space would trigger their security treaty, as senior officials from both countries warned that China represents the “greatest strategic challenge” to regional security. “We agree that [China] is the greatest shared strategic challenge that we, our allies and partners face,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Thursday after meeting his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in Washington. US and Japanese defence chiefs agreed that attacks “to, from and within” space could invoke article five of their security treaty,…
Taiwan invasion by China would fail, but at huge US cost, analysts’ war game finds
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would probably fail if the United States helped defend the island – but would come at a debilitating cost to the American military itself, according to a US thinktank. Military experts brought together by the Center for Strategic and International Studies to war game the conflict said every likely direct participant in a war – the United States, China, Taiwan and Japan – would experience “enormous” losses. Chinese missiles would probably destroy US airbases in Japan and as far as Guam, and sink two US…
Chinese navy jet flies within 10ft of US air force plane over South China Sea
A Chinese military plane came within 10ft (three meters) of a US air force aircraft over the contested South China Sea last week and forced it to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision in international airspace, the US military said. The close encounter followed what the US called a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military aircraft. The incident, which involved a Chinese navy J-11 fighter jet and a US air force RC-135 aircraft, took place on 21 December, the US military said in a statement. “We…
Australia and China team up to protest WTO blockages caused by US vetoes on appeal body
Australia has teamed up with China and more than 100 countries to protest longstanding blockages at the World Trade Organization as the United States vetoes appeal judge appointments. Australia and China remain at odds over specific trade disputes between them – such as Beijing’s tariffs on Australian wine and barley – but are united in concern about the years-long disruption to a key appeal body. Australia is pushing for a “fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system” so alleged breaches of trade rules can be “effectively addressed by all members, regardless…
Japan approves biggest military buildup since second world war amid China fears
Japan has approved its biggest military buildup since the second world war, warning that China poses the “greatest strategic challenge ever” and outlining plans to develop a counterstrike capability funded by record defence spending. The plans, announced by the government on Friday, reflect growing alarm over a more assertive Chinese military and a North Korean regime that continues to improve its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. But the changes have also triggered criticism that Japan is abandoning more than seven decades of pacifism under its postwar constitution. Japan aims to…
Papua New Guinea can’t afford Australia and US standoff with China, James Marape warns
The prime minister of Papua New Guinea has warned that his country will not be caught in a “standoff” between the US, Australia and China, as geopolitical tensions in the Pacific increase, warning the global powers to “keep your fights to yourselves”. “Our nation is still an emerging economy, we cannot afford the standoff between our trading partners,” James Marape told the Guardian while on a visit to Sydney for a petroleum and mining conference. He said that among Pacific leaders there was a concern about being caught in the…
Nato concerned by China’s ‘rapid and opaque’ military buildup, says Blinken
Nato allies are concerned about China’s rapid and opaque military buildup and its cooperation with Russia, and discussed concrete ways to address the challenges posed by Beijing, US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said. “The members of our alliance remain concerned by the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] coercive policies, by its use of disinformation, by its rapid, opaque military buildup, including its cooperation with Russia,” Blinken told a news conference on Wednesday after a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the defence alliance. “But we also remain committed…
US and Canada urge China not to harm zero-Covid protesters amid calls for ‘crackdown’
The US and Canada have urged China not to harm or intimidate protesters opposing Covid-19 lockdowns as police clashed with demonstrators and the country’s top security body called for a crackdown on “hostile forces”. Protesters scuffled with police in the southern Chinese megacity of Guangzhou late on Tuesday night, according to witnesses and footage. Security personnel in hazmat suits formed ranks shoulder-to-shoulder, taking cover under riot shields, to make their way down a street in the southern city’s Haizhu district as glass smashed around them, videos posted on social media…
Biden and Sunak vow to support Ukraine and counter China in first call
The US president, Joe Biden, and Britain’s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, agreed during talks on Tuesday to work together to support Ukraine and stand up to China, the White House said. They spoke for the first time a few hours after Sunak became Britain’s third prime minister this year, inheriting an economic crisis after the resignation of Liz Truss whose tenure lasted 49 days. Only in recent days has Biden appeared to publicly criticise Truss’s doomed economic strategy, in a rare intervention by the US president. Relations between the…