China to be in focus at summit between Joe Biden, Japan’s Yoshihide Suga
- Taiwan and Huawei will be on the agenda, but when it comes to Xinjiang and Hong Kong, the two sides have ‘slightly different perspectives’, says US official
- The meeting, in Washington, will be the US president’s first with another head of state since he took office in January
“The United States and Japan seek to play a steady, careful role to underscore our mutual commitment in the maintenance of peace and stability” when it comes to the flaring tensions between Beijing and Taipei, a senior administration official previewing the meeting said on Thursday.
Biden’s hosting of Suga, the president’s first in-person meeting with another head of state, comes days after he dispatched an unofficial delegation to Taiwan in a show of support for the island.
Earlier this week, Beijing sent warplanes to infiltrate Taiwan’s air defence zone in what officials later called a warning that the self-governed island should stop “working with the US”.
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US delegation visits Taiwan as Beijing warns of military action against the island
Neither the US nor Japan sought “to raise tensions or to provoke China,” the administration official said. “But at the same time, we’re trying to send a clear signal that some of the steps that China is taking – for instance, its fighters and bombers, flying them into Taiwan’s airspace – is antithetical to the mission of maintaining peace and stability.”