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TOKYO , Jul 3 (AP) \u2014 The United States is working with Japan and other likeminded countries to counter China\u2019s efforts to use its economic might to force political change around the world, the U.S. ambassador to Japan said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Rahm Emanuel, who was previously mayor of Chicago and chief of staff for President Barack Obama, is pushing what he calls \u201ccommercial diplomacy,\u201d the idea that the United States and Japan will be more eager to do business with each other and with similar secure and stable countries amid worries caused by the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine and Chinese economic coercion.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom intellectual property theft to coercion to debt dependency that China creates, the idea that they could actually honestly say, \u2018We don\u2019t coerce,\u2019 and then you have not one, not two, not three \u2013 many worldwide examples where they use their economic market access to force a political change in a country … I think everybody\u2019s woken up to that,\u201d Emanuel told AP in an interview in his residence in the heart of downtown Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Emanuel, who arrived in Japan in January, laid out a number of examples of Chinese coercion, including with Japan, which saw Chinese shipments of rare earth metals blocked over a territorial dispute; South Korea, which suffered Chinese business boycotts when it installed a U.S. missile defense system; Australia and countries in Europe and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
He said that finding ways for Japan and the United States to stand up to Chinese economic coercion was one of the first issues he raised with Japan\u2019s foreign minister.<\/p>\n
Emanuel repeatedly declined to speak about an expected visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own and has threatened to use force to unite with if necessary, referring questions to the White House.<\/p>\n
China has in recent days lashed out at the possible trip, which would make Pelosi the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to visit in more than 25 years. Local media in Taiwan reported that Pelosi will arrive Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Japan has expressed deep worry about increased Chinese activities in regional seas, including near a Japanese-controlled island claimed by Beijing, and has pushed for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n
While avoiding comment on Taiwan, Emanuel praised Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida\u2019s pledge for a \u201csignificant increase\u201d in both the country\u2019s defense budget and its military capabilities.<\/p>\n
Kishida\u2019s attempts to revise Japan\u2019s national security strategy and basic defense guidelines are a legacy of his hawkish mentor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July.<\/p>\n
Kishida has also said he is open to possible preemptive strike capabilities, which opponents say would go far beyond Japan\u2019s war-renouncing constitution, which restricts the use of force to self-defense. Kishida also has proposed significantly increasing Japan\u2019s defense budget \u2014 possibly doubling to 2% of GDP, a NATO standard \u2014 over the next five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch to the prime minister\u2019s credit, he looked around the corner and realized what was happening in this region and the world \u2014 Japan needed to step up in ways it hadn\u2019t in the past,\u201d Emanuel said.<\/p>\n
Emanuel also mentioned economic opportunities for Japan and the United States in electric vehicle batteries, energy, new research and technology in small modular nuclear reactors, aviation technology and semiconductors.<\/p>\n
The business leaders who he has met with as ambassador to Japan would have evaluated a capital expenditure decision in the past purely by questions over cost, logistics and efficiency, he said, but they are now willing to pay more to avoid sanctions and instability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a major change in thinking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For \u201cthe last 20 or 30 years, cost and efficiency were the driving factors. They drove public policy, and they drove corporate decisions. Today cost and efficiency are being replaced, supplanted by stability and sustainability,\u201d Emanuel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOKYO , Jul 3 (AP) \u2014 The United States is working with Japan and other likeminded countries to counter China\u2019s efforts to use its economic might to force political change around the world, the U.S. ambassador to Japan said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. Rahm Emanuel, who was previously mayor of Chicago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-197025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}