South Korean, U.S. and Japan leaders meet at Camp David, affirm action to limit aggressive moves by China and North Korea
President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, President Joe Biden, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and met at Camp David last week in a move aimed at limiting China’s regional ambitions and deterring North Korea’s continuing missile development program.
The group said the meeting was to reaffirm the “importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
They noted in their post-meeting statement China’s “dangerous and aggressive behavior” in the South China Sea but add the meeting was not “anti-China.”
Of course, China didn’t see it that way. The Chinese Communist Party saw the move as part of “all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China” policy.
Hopefully containment is exactly what this group intends, stated or otherwise.
China cannot have an expectation that there will not be action to counteract what it is doing globally.
China held military exercises with Russia, near Japan and near Alaska but made no mention of attempting to contain or encircle the United States.
China also continues to reaffirm its long-held claim on Taiwan with a steady increase of military activities, and air and sea drills. China has been engaging in increasingly provocative behavior in the South China Sea.
CCP leaders, who live and work in a tight bubble, unfettered by internal media or free elections. have seemingly deluded themselves into believing that the world does not see its aggressiveness for what it is.
The CCP’s well-known goals of the Great Rejuvenation of 2049, aimed at supplanting U.S. partnerships and alliances is likely fantasy but China persists in trying to achieve dominance.
We need to believe them when they said out loud what they want. Their efforts will not stop despite significant obstacles.
Containment is warranted, even if we do not call by that name.
Containment was a policy that was used against the former Soviet Union. Although it was not perfect – see Vietnam – it was somewhat effective in checking the expansionist ideas of Kremlin leaders.
Containing China now includes this group of nations, two of which have been at odds historically. Korea, once colonized by Japan, and Japan have turned an important corner in softening relations.
Other organizations aimed at regional peace include AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, U.S.), and the Quad (Australia, India, Japan, U.S). Together they are seeking the effect of limiting China’s efforts at bullying neighbors either militarily or economically.
This comes at a time when China may actually become more dangerous as its economy has multiple indicators of faltering.
According to the Wall Street Journal, China is “drowning in debt,” and has an overall drop in construction, a contraction of manufacturing, a decline in exports, and high youth unemployment.
China has now even resorted to hiding key economic information — youth unemployment figures— further eroding an already tenuous level of trust for foreign businesses and investors (and likely even internal businesses) which could result in less investment.
Meanwhile the dictator in North Korea, Kim Jong Un, continues to push forward with testing of missiles of all kinds in an attempt to intimidate his neighbors.
This dangerous climate, has the attention now of the major and minor countries of the region, that includes Indo-Pacific nations, including the U.S.
The group’s agreement, though not an alliance in the sense of NATO, is mutually beneficial, and signifies that perhaps serious measures will come.
The agreement reached at Camp David is designed to require annual summits of the signatories, it establishes a three-way communication channel, and announces regular military exercises that strengthen communications and cooperation.
Other countries in the region are also important in deterrence of China and North Korea, including Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, and even Vietnam.
Several smaller countries, such as the Solomon Islands are figuring into this equation because of their strategic location(s) and tactical advantages. Several will undoubtedly be required to choose sides.
Much of the world’s most responsible countries now recognize the rogue actions of China, a country which is fueled by massive amounts of money flowing largely from the west, predominantly the U.S. Business decisions will have to be made whether to continue this flow.
The regional countries (and others) also see that China has aligned itself with the malignant Vladimir Putin in Russia, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, both rogue actors.
This new agreement, and others of its kind, will be tested by China and North Korea. Their collective and individual responses will likely be years in the making. Constant refinement will likewise be necessary from the U.S. and its friends.
This is the moment in history affords us the opportunity to avoid a major war by limiting China’s global quest for domination.
James Hutton is a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army. Follow him on Twitter @jehutton
What troubles me is not knowing who is in charge, here in the U.S.