Abe balances as US adds pressure on China

TOKYO – In his Tuesday meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US Vice President Mike Pence outlined the strong ties of their countries by announcing a combined $ 70 billion commitment to infrastructure development, mainly in Indo-Pacific region.

Pence stopped in Tokyo to travel to the summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Papua New Guinea. While Pence replaces President Donald Trump, who has chosen not to attend Asian multilateral meetings, the Vice President himself has won the limelight since he launched a scathing criticism against China in a speech on Thursday. last month.

This is the first time Abe has met a Trump administration official since the mid-term US elections last week. And while the United States is keen to assert its alliance with Japan in the face of competition for supremacy over China, the increased pressure exerted by the Trump government on Beijing makes even more delicate Abe's delicate balance with two largest economic powers in the world.

"My country is now offering $ 60 billion in funding for development, and infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific will be a priority," Pence said at a conference in Washington. press with Abe after the meeting. "We are also grateful, Prime Minister, that Japan has targeted $ 10 billion in investments by public and private organizations in promising energy infrastructure projects."

These projects should serve as a counterweight to the massive infrastructure construction undertaken by the China Belt and Road Initiative. President Xi Jinping's signature program aims to create a sprawling economic bloc in Asia and beyond.

After their meeting, Abe and Pence exchanged joint statements – which is unusual given the difference in rank of their offices – confirming their country's intention to cooperate in infrastructure projects in countries third parties in accordance with the principles of transparency and debt sustainability.

The Trump administration's enthusiasm for Indo-Pacific development is good news for the Japanese leader. It was Japan that conceived this initiative, hoping to draw the attention of the Trump administration to Asia, without discussing it openly, in the hope that keeping China occupied in the ocean Indian would divert the pressure of the neighboring East China Sea.

Abe's diplomatic strategy has been to gradually restore relations with China, whose vast market is indispensable to Japanese companies, while consolidating the US-Japan alliance as the foundation of international relations. Last month, Abe went to China as the first Japanese leader in seven years, showing his willingness to cooperate in the Belt and Road areas.

But as the United States and China clash more and more, Abe's balancing becomes delicate.

"We recognized that Japan and the United States should continue to work closely together to lead a constructive dialogue with China," Abe said at a press conference.

The Abe government is working diligently to avoid making the United States mistrustful of Japan's efforts to melt its relations with China. He has been trying to explain his policy towards China to the Trump administration before the state visit last month.

James Schoff, senior official of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, welcomes Abe's rapprochement with Washington, warns that China is a hawk in the Trup administration, such as Peter Navarro, trade advisor to the White House, and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce. Secretary Wilbur Ross, can oppose movements.

"The hard-core are facing a big challenge with China, setting the bar very high, and they might think that closer ties between Japan and China will give Beijing room to maneuver," he said.

Pence, for its part, has become a symbol of the Americans' lobbying campaign in China since last month's fiery speech, in which he asserted that Beijing "has prioritized the capabilities to erode the military benefits of America. on land, at sea, in the air and in cities ". space. "It was also aimed at the industrial plan" Made in China 2025 "and accused China of" wholesale theft of American technology "and" massive transformation of plows into swords ".

In addition, Tokyo's discomfort over trade talks with Washington was visible at Tuesday's meeting.

At the press conference, Pence said that "US products and services all too often face barriers to fair competition in Japanese markets."

With respect to the trade agreement on goods on which Trump and Abe agreed to start negotiations in September, Mr. Pence said: "We are confident that this agreement will establish conditions for goods, as well as for from other key areas, including services. " The US-Japan trade agreement "will be a model for the Indo-Pacific," he added.

Although Pence has offered Japan some assurances – such as the fact that the US will not raise tariffs on Japanese automobiles during the negotiation of the trade pact – both parties seem to have a different understanding of the deal.

The Japanese government has described the deal to its national audience as being focused on products such as automobiles and agricultural products. Pence, however, wrote on Twitter when he arrived in Japan on Monday that Abe and he would discuss "free trade agreement negotiations," which would include services.

Japan's sensitivity in this regard was clearly demonstrated during a briefing after Tuesday's press conference. "" The bilateral trade agreement "was translated by" FTA "in simultaneous interpretation," said Yasutoshi Nishimura, deputy secretary general of the Cabinet, "but it is a bilateral agreement and not of an FTA ".

Tokyo's concerns go beyond the title of the agreement. If the tensions between Taiwan and the United States on Taiwan were to intensify, for example, Japan's loyalties would be put to the test. The United States has strengthened its ties with the island, with the sale of arms and the adoption of a law encouraging reciprocal official visits to Taipei.

China regards Taiwan as a fundamental interest on which it will make no compromises and abhors any involvement of the United States in the matter. "If tensions increased and China began to intimidate Taiwan, it would be hard for Abe to remain silent," said Carnegie's Schoff. "Would he give up all his efforts to improve relations with China on this subject?