US election: Washington will need Japan more than before amid China tensions, Suga adviser says

Name: Trump calls election a 'fraud' and Biden awaits full vote count as frustrated Americans protest
Uploaded: 2020-11-06T07:19:56.000Z
Duration: 2 min 45 s
Description: Trump calls election a 'fraud' and Biden awaits full vote count as frustrated Americans protest

Kunihiko Miyake says US relations with Tokyo are likely to become relatively more important as Beijing becomes more powerful

Prime Minister Suga is thinking of visiting the US in January, while China’s top diplomat may make a trip to Japan this month

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Photo: DPA

Bloomberg

Published: 3:19pm, 6 Nov 2020Updated: 6:29pm, 12 Nov 2020

Friction between the US and China means Washington will need Japan more than before, regardless of who wins the presidential election, according to a foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

“US relations with Japan and East Asian policies are likely to become relatively more important” as China becomes more powerful, former diplomat Kunihiko Miyake said on Thursday, while the US election result remained unclear.

Tension between China and the US won’t dissipate under a new president, because both Democrats and Republicans are in agreement that China is the main strategic rival for the US, Miyake added.

Suga must tread a fine line with Japan’s only formal military ally, the US, and its biggest trade partner, China.

Democrat Joe Biden, a past proponent of engagement with Beijing, has adopted a more critical tone during the campaign and pledged to enlist allies to a coordinated effort to check China’s rise. Republican Donald Trump has been more assertive with China than any US president in decades, slapping tariffs on goods and moving to restrict its access to key technologies.

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Trump calls election a 'fraud' and Biden awaits full vote count as frustrated Americans protest

Max Baucus, a Democratic former senator who served as US ambassador to China during the Obama administration, said it’s important for Chinese people to see America standing up for its historical values, such as respect for human rights and democracy.

“The more America gets belligerent toward China in the Senate or in the administration and tries to put China down, the more that strengthens the hands of hawks in China,” he said.