NEWS

Swiss Ambassador to China Jürg Burri Photo: Courtesy of the Swiss Embassy in Beijing

As the new Swiss Ambassador to China who assumed office four months ago, Jürg Burri has had a busy schedule and a long list of things to do.

In 10 days, he has visited Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Beijing and Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province, to meet officials, business representatives and ordinary citizens. He posted his experiences on China’s social media platform Sina Weibo, where he has more than 100,000 followers.

“As new Swiss Ambassador to China, my priority is to defend Switzerland’s interests in China in several fields including politics, economics and people-to-people relations,” he told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.

“Normally it should be political relations first, but in my case the order will be reversed because in 2025, we will celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and China, and that comes under political relations. In 2024, we will welcome the 10th anniversary of the free trade agreement (FTA) between Switzerland and China, which is economic relations. Therefore, I hope this year will be the year of people-to-people relations,” he said.

He noted that the job as Switzerland’s Ambassador to China is both rewarding and challenging. “China is always challenging and China is always rewarding for a country like Switzerland, which has a population almost 175 times smaller than the Chinese population.”

Burri is now eyeing the development of bilateral relations, an area where there is lots of potential, he said. China has recently made its COVID-19 adjustment and released a series of measures that further facilitate the movement of people and goods as well as international travel. “The fact that people can travel again and the tourism sector is opening up will surely boost the Chinese economy,” Burri said.

He said that this year could be the year of rediscovering each other.

“We can also benefit again from the direct contact experience. We have around 1,000 Swiss companies here in China. This year will be the year of rediscovery and of re-knowing each other in a direct and personal way,” he said, noting that the economic cooperation between the two countries will be more intense.

At the invitation of Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, and the government of the Swiss Confederation, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 and visited Switzerland from January 15 to 19.

“Also, for other conferences, we are informed that Chinese delegations are going to Switzerland again,” the ambassador said.

The Swiss government said last week that travelers from China entering Switzerland will not be required to undergo compulsory testing for COVID-19, Reuters reported.

The Omicron variants circulating in China posed “only a small risk to the Swiss population and the Swiss health system,” it said in a statement, read the report.

Talking about how Switzerland views its relations with China at a time when the world is facing more uncertainties, the diplomat told the Global Times that China and the world “are very closely interconnected through many types of relations, especially economic relations.”

“China has trade partners in Europe, in ASEAN and in the US, which is more or less like three packages. When I look at Switzerland, China is also our third trade partner. So I think the relationship is so important that we should listen to each other very carefully and that we should try to find out how we can make the most out of this relationship. We should evaluate all the possibilities that we have for good cooperation,” he said.

Burri said that Switzerland and China now have “very intense” economic cooperation.

“On the one side, there is trade. China is Switzerland’s No.3 trade partner. The trade has been mutually growing over the past years. So when I look back to 2014, when the free trade agreement entered into force, the trade volume has increased by 90 percent since then. What’s interesting about this trade relationship is that it’s more or less balanced. So we can say each gives as much as it takes and each takes as much as it gives.”

Asked about whether it is hard to maintain close economic ties with China amid the current global political environment, the ambassador said that for many countries and especially for Switzerland, trade also has its own drive.

“We are oriented towards opportunities that are fruitful for both sides. I think these opportunities are here and I think that business people in both countries are still looking for these opportunities and are trying to explore them,” he said.

He noted that an important field of cooperation between the two countries is in finance.

“We have the rather new instrument of the global stock connect between China and Switzerland and a very new phenomenon is that Chinese companies are putting their stocks through Global Exchange Depositary Receipts into the Swiss market in order to get investment from Switzerland into China. This is a new way of doing business. It opens many possibilities for both sides,” he said.

Fostering people-to-people ties

From 2006 to 2009, Burri served as the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing. Talking about the changes that impressed him most from a decade ago, he named the “incredible new infrastructure,” including the bullet train network.

“I think the high-speed train network is something which is really big for China because it’s more environmentally friendly than traveling by airplane. In general, I find that the air quality in Beijing is better and the water quality is better.”

In addition to economic cooperation, the two countries are also seeing cooperation in other fields, including sports. Chinese striker Zhang Linyan now plays for the Grasshopper Club Zurich women’s team in the Swiss Women’s Super League.

Burri told the Global Times that he knows some Chinese investors are now involved in the Swiss football league.

“Sports serve as a very good field for a partnership between countries. I think the other example is Swiss ski resorts, which are involved or in partnership with Chinese ski resorts,” he said.

“If sports people want to cooperate between countries, I’m very much in favor and I’m willing to support it,” he said.

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

With White House officials Tuesday calling on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to “come clean” about secretive deals he made with hard-line House members that helped him eventually land the job, experts believe that the influence of a fundamental split within US political parties have begun to emerge, and that the polarization of US politics will make it difficult to sustain the two-party system.

US Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy finally became Speaker of the House of Representatives on January 7 after a historic and embarrassing deadlock which took 15 rounds of voting that prevented the lower chamber from being fully functional for days after the new Congress convened.

Some media outlets revealed that McCarthy and the “Freedom Caucus,” the most conservative, far-right caucus of the Republican Party, reached “secret agreements” behind closed doors during the four days of drawn-out voting. 

Addressing the details of these “secret agreements,” White House spokesperson  Andrew Bates said in a statement released on Tuesday that “an unprecedented tax hike on the middle class and a national abortion ban are just a glimpse of the secret, backroom deals Speaker McCarthy made with extreme MAGA members to end this month’s chaotic elections and claim the gavel.” Bateman said “it is well past time for Speaker McCarthy and the ultra MAGA Republican House members to come out of the dark and tell the American people, in-full, what they decided in secret.”

While McCarthy insisted he made no formal agreements in exchange for getting conservative holdouts to vote for him, conservative members have said they received certain promises from the new speaker, Politico reported.

For 100 years, the election of the speaker was decided after a single round of voting, but this time, it took 15 to produce a result, Lü Xiang, an expert on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday, noting that this can be seen as a prelude to a fundamental split in the Republican Party in the long run. 

“It shows that the two-party system can no longer function properly in the American political environment,” Lü said.

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that McCarthy’s election came as a result of compromise within the Republican Party, but the battle between the two opposing parties in the US remains bitter, now and for some time to come, and will be difficult to reconcile.

The main reason is that the Republican Party refuses to compromise on the current distribution of power in the US, Li noted. Such opposition has worsened the existing political environment in the US, greatly reduced the quality of American politics, and made social problems more serious and difficult to alleviate.

According to NBC News, McCarthy offered to lower the threshold to force a vote on ousting the House Speaker down to just one member. In addition, McCarthy also promised to put more right-wing hard-liners on key House committees and vote on a series of conservative bills.

“The few agreements we know about would fundamentally reshape our economy in a devastating way for working families and criminalize women for making their own healthcare decisions,” Bates said. 

In the future, US politics may lean toward a more European style with multiple parties contesting elections, Lü said. It is hard to sustain a functioning two-party system just by lumping people with totally different political views together.

McCarthy is expected make moves on a number of China-related issues, as he wants to cast more shadows and disrupt the Biden administration, experts pointed out. McCarthy represents a more extreme group of lawmakers with no political experience and no boundaries, Lü said. Therefore, people will see the whole domestic atmosphere in the US will be clouded by China-related issues.

It is predictable that McCarthy’s position will be precarious, and it will be difficult for him to do his job. It is more likely that McCarthy will do something drastic to secure his position, such as compromising on domestic issues or shifting attention to China, Yuan Zheng, deputy director and a senior fellow of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

EU flags are seen outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, Jan 6, 2023. Photo:Xinhua

The Global Times Research Center conducted a survey in 13 countries in Europe and Turkey to learn about Europeans’ opinions on their relations with the US since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February, 2022, as well as their concerns over the security situation of the continent and the energy and food crises. Data from 7,536 samples show that more Europeans are unsatisfied with their ties with the US and are concerned that US actions against Russia will bring negative impact to Europe’s economy.  

The survey also found that although the people who are “unsatisfied” with Europe-US relations are more than those who find the ties with the US “satisfied,” most Europeans believe that the US is dominating the transatlantic relations, and most Europeans have no confidence to have a more independent and autonomous strategy that could serve Europe’s own interests rather than being dominated by Washington.

The Global Times Research Center conducted the survey in 12 different languages to cover permanent residents that are aged 18 and above across 13 European countries and Turkey, which is located at the junction of Europe and Asia. The survey received 7,536 samples from November 23 to December 22, 2022,and it includes 44 questions that are related to the security situation of Europe, and views on Europe-US relations, as well as the impacts brought about by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Europe’s internal and external strategies. 

The 14 countries are France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Lithuania and Turkey.   

US Europe Illustration: Liu Rui/GT Transatlantic relations

Among the participants from the 14 countries, 39 percent of them believe that the US is “dominating” the bilateral relations with their countries, and 23 percent of them consider their countries have an “equal partnership” with the US, and 12 percent believe their countries have “full independence and autonomy.” 

On relations between Europe and the US, 32 percent of them believe that the US is dominating the Europe-US relations, and 30 percent consider Europe and the US have equal partnership, and less than 10 percent believes that Europe is fully dominating or have full independence and autonomy in the relationship. 

The survey has found that, on average, 32 percent of the participants are “unsatisfied” with the relations between their countries and the US, while 39 percent are “neutral,” and 29 percent are “satisfied.” When it comes to Europe-US relations, 31 percent are “unsatisfied,” while 40 percent are “neutral,” and 29 percent are “satisfied.”

In general, the people who are not satisfied with the relations with the US are slightly more than those who are satisfied. Analysts said this shows that most Europeans are suffering from a dilemma when answering such question: On the one hand, the US is bullying European countries and meddling in European affairs frequently, and the US is using the Ukraine crisis as an opportunity to undermine Europe’s economy; but on the other hand, Europeans believe that their countries are too weak or too small to withstand huge crises and geopolitical conflict, so they have to rely on an external force, or a super power with similar ideology and values, to ensure their safety in the world that’s getting increasingly turbulent. 

But on the questions about their countries’ future relations with the US, 30 percent of them favor maintaining the status quo, 28 percent of them believe that they should stand closer with the US, and 22 percent of them consider that they should be more independent. 

Among the 14 countries, Poland is the one with more pro-US sentiment, with 60 percent of the Polish participants saying they’re satisfied with the bilateral relations with the US, and 56 percent of them consider their country should have closer ties with the US in the future. More than 30 percent of participants from France (31 percent), Greece (37 percent) and Turkey (34 percent) believe that they should be more independent in the future bilateral ties. 

Analysts said Poland has benefited from the US anti-Russia strategy and has long-standing historical problems with Russia, so some countries with similar characteristics with Poland will welcome the US presence to contain Russia in the continent. But those major countries with leading role in the EU and bigger economic sizes like France and Germany will sense the competitive parts of the EU-US relations, so more people will hope the EU could be more independent, and countries like Greece, Hungary, Serbia and Turkey who are having stronger ties with Russia and culturally different from major Western powers will be even more cautious when dealing with the US. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (left) and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu meet in Ankara on June 8, 2022. Their discussions focused on a UN proposal to free Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and allow 22 million tons of grain sitting in silos to be shipped out.Photo:VCG

On Russia-Ukraine conflict

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the very issue that concerned Europeans most at the moment. The survey finds that 33 percent of the participants believe the US is playing a negative role in the Ukraine crisis, and 28 percent of them find their impression of the US is getting worse since the conflict breaks out. And 49 percent of the participants find US response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict will bring very negative or relatively negative impact to the European economy.  

The survey also finds that 26 percent of the participants believe that European countries are “not wise” to follow the US to sanction Russia due to the Ukraine crisis, while 23 percent said European countries are being forced to get involved, and 24 percent said the sanction is “wise.” 

In countries like Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Italy and Turkey, the people who dislike the US role in the crisis are obviously more than the ones who are pro-US, and analysts said some of these countries are EU members, and Serbia is applying for the EU membership, while Turkey is a NATO member, so they will to some extent play special roles in the trilateral relations of the EU, the US and Russia.

Zhang Chao, an expert from the Institute of European Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides new incentives for the development of the Europe-US ties, and the survey reflects that although most Europeans are not satisfied with US’ role in Europe, the current situation has forced them to stand closer with the US, and the survey also shows that most Europeans have sensed the damages caused by the anti-Russia sanction. 

The survey results reflects the European public’s judgement based on the current actual situation, Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday.

“Since they feel the threat is right in front of them and they have a strong sense of crisis, they cannot be expected to think about the future in an absolute sensible way or independently deal with the crisis in an emergency status,” Cui explained.

As for to what extent can the current public opinion affect the future relations among Europe, the US and Russia, Cui said the impact will depend on how the conflict will come to an end and on how the US and NATO will use the current public opinion and situation.

Cui said it’s very challenging to predict the future development of relations among the EU, the US and Russia, which can be affected by the situation on the battle field, the diplomatic fallout, as well as the exchanges of interests. “For example, if we had a cease-fire at first, the public might tend to solve the issue in a diplomatic way rather than focusing on the security problem. Thus, they could be less reliable on the US and NATO.”

The survey finds 37 percent of the participants among the 14 countries believe that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will end in 2023. 

Rescuers and onlookers gather at the site of a plane crash in Pokhara on January 15, 2023. An aircraft with 72 people on board crashed in Nepal on January 15, Yeti Airlines and a local official said. Photo: VCG

The Chinese Embassy in Nepal said that China is deeply saddened by the heavy casualties caused by the passenger plane crash in Nepal and expressed deep condolences to the victims and deep sympathy to the bereaved families. 

A domestic flight crashed in Pokhara, Nepal, in the small Himalayan country’s worst crash in three decades. Seventy-two people were aboard the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, 68 passengers and four crew. Of the passengers, 15 were foreigners and 53 were Nepalis, local media reported. All have been confirmed dead, TASS reported, citing an airline spokesperson.  

Upon learning of the crash, the embassy immediately activated the emergency mechanism to learn more about the situation. It has been verified that no Chinese nationals were on the plane, the Chinese Embassy said in a statement released on Sunday night. 

Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority told the Global Times in a statement that the weather on Sunday was clear. The causes for the crash are under investigation.

On Twitter, Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed his sadness over the crash. The government announced a national day of mourning on Monday for the victims.

Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal due to the elevated mountainous terrain, as it has eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Qomolangma (The Everest) – where the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions. Over the last 30 years, there have been nearly 30 fatal plane crashes in Nepal, the most recent – before the Pokhara plane crash – being a Tara Air crash, in May 2022, killing 22 people on board, local media reported.

Experts speculated that mechanical fault might be one of the reasons, based on the fact that the weather conditions were good on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Nepal’s air industry has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance. The European Union has banned Nepalese airlines from its airspace over concerns about training and maintenance standards in the country’s aviation industry, the Guardian reported.

The accident sounded an alarm again that the aging fleet of Nepal’s aviation industry demands prompts solutions, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Qain said that cooperation between China and Nepal can perhaps facilitate the upgrading of the aviation industry in Nepal.

Himalaya Airlines, a joint venture between China and Nepal, announced the resumption of direct flights between Beijing and Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, on January 17, in a bid to resume people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in economic tourism. Nepalese travel agencies believe that millions of Chinese tourists are expected to go abroad this year and they are welcome to visit Nepal again.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi shake hands after signing the US-Japan Space Cooperation Framework Agreement at NASA headquarters January 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. Photo: VCG

Representatives from the US and Japan gathered at the US’ NASA headquarters in Washington local time on Friday and signed an agreement that “builds on a long history of collaboration in space exploration between two nations.” 

However, the underlying anti-China color of the agreement is worryingly obvious, since it came just shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made remarks last week that the US and Japan agree China is their “greatest shared strategic challenge” and they confirmed that an attack in space would trigger a mutual defense provision in the US-Japan security treaty, Chinese observers warned. 

The signing of the space cooperation framework agreement is described by NASA as a highlight of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Washington, his first since taking office in 2021.

The crucial background to Kishida’s visit is the Japanese Cabinet’s passing of three key defense documents in December 2022, which include a substantial increase in defense expenditure and the determination to possess “counterstrike” capability. This marks
Japan’s largest military reform since World War II, observers said.

Blinken and Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi signed the agreement on behalf of the two countries.

“I expect this agreement to vigorously promote Japan-US space cooperation and expand areas of cooperation for the Japan-US alliance, which is stronger than ever before,” Kishida said.

Known as the “Framework Agreement Between the Government of Japan and the Government of the United States of America for Cooperation in Space Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, For Peaceful Purposes,” this pact recognizes a mutual interest in peaceful exploration, NASA claimed in a press release. 

NASA said it and the Japanese government had finalized a previous agreement in November 2022 confirming Japan’s contributions to the lunar Gateway orbiting outpost as part of a commitment to long-term lunar exploration cooperation with NASA under the Artemis program. 

Japan was one of the earliest signatories of the US-proposed Artemis Accords, aiming to become the second country to land an astronaut on the moon as part of the project, which was widely criticized for its exclusiveness. Media has reported that the pact proposed building safety zones “surrounding future moon bases in a bid to prevent damage or interference from rival countries and companies.” And only “like-minded space partners” were welcomed in signing in the US-led pact. 

Japan and the US will accelerate sending the first Japanese astronaut to the moon, Kyodo News said, and the move is “intended to rival China, which is considering building a lunar research base.”

“Together, we have advanced the frontiers of human endeavor and scientific knowledge through our partnership – from the creation of the International Space Station to development of the lunar Gateway, a research outpost that will orbit the Moon and be used to prepare for future missions to Mars,” the US state department said in a press release over the signing of the new US-Japan space cooperation agreement. 

The Wall Street Journal wrote on Wednesday that the US and Japan had announced initiatives to expand the alliance’s security umbrella to safeguard Japanese satellites from attack, and the report cited US officials as saying that such an undertaking was previously only given to NATO allies. 

Blinken said that any attacks “to, from and within space” on Japanese satellites could prompt the invocation of Article V of the US-Japan Security Treaty, the WSJ wrote, while spelling out that political agenda behind is to “counter China.” 

Song Zhongping, a space watcher and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday warned that what lies behind Japan’s increasing closeness with the US in the space domain is not only the ambition of becoming a space power with US technology assistance, but also the vicious goals of developing military forces of an offensive nature in space in the name of protecting space assets and gradually breaking through its Pacifist Constitution.

The US also needs help from Japan in technology as well as for the money. Experts noted that the Japan needs to understand that “the satellite protection the US offered demands real cash and such extra money would serve to ease the budget pressure the US is facing on its own in the rivalry against China and Russia.”  

Japan should avoid becoming a US lackey in space, and it should abandon the idea of playing the role of a “sharp spear” in the alliance as the US has given strong support for, as it would go against the post-war promises and hurt the delicate trust of its Asian neighbors, creating chaos and turbulence in the Asia-Pacific region, analysts said. 

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

 

US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s pledge to strengthen their countries’ ties and bolster alliances in the Indo-Pacific region under the excuse of countering China – their imaginary enemy – represents a ticking bomb for the region’s hard-sustained peace, experts said, believing that Japan is also laying ground for hosting the G7 summit this year, to draw in members to concentrate on attacking China. 

They believe that such “alliance,” which endows the country support of military expansion, is a double-edged sword for Tokyo, as it also pushes Japan to the front line of attack and disdain across Indo-Pacific region, as more tensions will be triggered by its ties with US. They warned China to remain on high alert against Japan and the US’ next step, especially on the Taiwan question.

“Our security alliance has never been stronger,” US and Japanese leaders said in a joint statement that included an exhaustive rundown of areas of agreement – from defense and trade to critical technologies and gender equality – but ploughed little new ground.

“At the same time, the Indo-Pacific faces growing challenges, from actions inconsistent with the rules-based international order by China to provocations by North Korea,” according to the statement.

Friday’s session at the White House followed
results agreed by top military and diplomatic officials from both countries on Wednesday to strengthen Tokyo’s air, sea, land, cyber and space defenses and otherwise strengthen integration to counter China.

Kishida visits the US on the last leg of his tour of five Group of Seven nations. Japan holds the presidency of the G7 this year and will host the summit in Hiroshima in May, NHK reported. It also said that Kishida planned to brief Biden on a major shift in Japan’s security policy announced last month. It includes gaining capabilities to launch counterstrikes and large defense budget increases.

Meeting with Biden was the top priority of Kishida’s agenda, and its aim is to collude with the US to counter China, Lü Chao, an expert on the Korean Peninsula issue at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said. At the same time, Japan is laying ground for the G7 summit, which will be held in May this year, to draw members to concentrate on attacking China. 

The expert also warned China to remain high alert on Japan and the US next steps, especially on the Taiwan question. 

Japan’s move to boost its military ability and strengthen cooperation with the US and other European countries is actually seeing China and other neighboring countries as “imaginary enemies”; such moves will certainly bring huge uncertainty to the Indo-Pacific region, Hu Jiping, deputy head of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.

In a bid to project a more positive agenda as space becomes increasingly militarized, the two countries signed a US-Japan Space Cooperation Framework Agreement on Friday to jointly explore “the moon and other celestial bodies, for peaceful purposes.”

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. He told the Global Times on Saturday that not only the move of introducing Western powers into the Indo-Pacific will undermine regional peace and stability, it also sows discord among regional countries, thus making international cooperation more difficult on issues such as economic recovery and climate change. 

In response to the “2+2” security talks between Japanese and US officials, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Friday that “They claim to uphold the rules-based international order, but what they do is trampling on international law and the basic norms governing international relations and grossly interfering in other countries’ internal affairs. What they have done poses a real challenge to regional peace, security and stability.”

The strengthening of ties, seemingly to benefit Kishida’s government, is believed by Chinese experts to backfire on Tokyo more than Washington as it has put Japan at the front line of counterattacks and riskier position.

Kishida’s aggressive military expansion is depriving his country of strategic independence, and making the country closer to becoming the US’ vassal and tool for achieving hegemony in the Indo-Pacific, said experts. Such plan may win Kishida political support in the short term, but in the long run, it is made at the cost of Japan’s national interest and people’s welfare, as more money went to equip the military, so less will be used to solve Japan’s pressing social problems, such as its aging population. 

Several worker and student groups have protested on the streets in Tokyo on Friday, denouncing Japan’s military expansion that disrupts people’s lives. 

The Global Times learned from the organizer of the protests that based on Japan’s new documents on security, it is specifying joint combat plans with the US targeting China, and that the Japanese government is going to pass 6.8 trillion ($50 billion) military expense budget in the Japanese Diet. The Kishida government has tied itself on the US chariot, and heading all the way to war. Under this trend, Japan will be part of war in the future, the organizer said.

The US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on preserving and protecting Democracy on November 2, 2022 in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP

US Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of a special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden’s garage-gate or “document-gate” – his improper possession of classified documents – marks a dramatic moment when an incumbent president and his predecessor are both being probed by a special counsel at the same time.

Chinese observers believed that the US “politics of veto” is further decaying into a “politics of retaliation”, where mutual attacks go beyond political views and become increasingly personal. The latest round of witch-hunting, which is dragging the US Department of Justice (DOJ) into the mud, just adds to proliferating evidence that lays bare a dysfunctional US’ political system.

A farce

Garland appointed Robert Hur on Thursday to investigate Biden, who admitted that a second set of classified government documents from the Obama administration, during which Biden served as vice president, were found in a storage space in the garage of Biden’s Delaware home, CNBC reported on Thursday.

The latest disclosure comes three days after Biden’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, confirmed media reports that attorneys for the president found a first batch of classified documents from the Biden administration on November 2, 2022 in an office at a Washington think tank that Biden had used as a private citizen, according to the CNBC report.

The documents reportedly include intelligence involving Iran, Ukraine and the UK.

Garland in November 2022 appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.

CNN reported on Thursday that the special counsel investigation of Biden, along with the aggressive new Republican-led House of Representatives, means the incumbent president may be on the defensive for the next two years.

Republican Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Tuesday to ask her to conduct an immediate review and damage assessment on the first batch of Biden documents, the CNBC reported.

On Thursday, Republican Kevin McCarthy, who was just elected House Speaker after an embarrassing 15-round vote not seen in a century, said, “I think Congress has to investigate this.”

“What’s the difference in what President Trump did versus what we now know President Biden did?” asked James Comer, the incoming House Oversight Committee chairman. “We want to know exactly what documents were taken by both President Trump and now President Biden and want to know if they’re gonna treat President Biden any differently than they treated President Trump,” the CBS reported.

Besides mutual political attacks, analysts noted a trend of mainstream US media tending to downplay the severity of Biden’s case, in contrast to their treatment of Trump’s case.

Trump’s family real estate business was ordered on Friday to pay a $1.6 million criminal penalty for its conviction on tax fraud and other charges. The verdict branded the company a felon, exposed a culture that nurtured illegality for years and handed political ammunition to Trump’s opponents, the New York Times reported.

Diao Daming, an expert on US studies and associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday that despite the enactment of the Presidential Records Act in 1978, Biden and Trump’s cases regarding classified documents more than four decades later exposed the loopholes in US law enforcement and supervision.

There are apparent problems with the institutional framework that the US boasts about, he added.

Lü Xiang, an expert on US studies and a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out a loophole in US legislation on restraining a president’s acts and handling a president’s misconduct. “Even a criminal suspect can be a presidential candidate” and it is too difficult to successfully impeach a president, the expert said.

Trump’s situation was clearer, as he faced criminal charges and has left the post of president, while Biden’s case was a bit more complicated as he is incumbent president and the documents date back to his time as vice president.

The DOJ has no right to question Biden, and it remains to be seen how the two “classified documents” cases will unfold, Lü said, predicting that the investigations may “end up nowhere.”

According to Diao, there is a possibility that Democrats and Republicans will achieve a dangerous balance in this round of witch-hunting.

But if Republicans can dig out more, they will not let go of the opportunity to attack Biden and his administration, which will generate more uncertainty over power struggles in Washington and the 2024 presidential election, analysts said.

Republicans had previously outlined a broad range of investigative targets focused on President Joe Biden and his family’s business dealings.

Comer said that in the 118th Congress, his House Oversight Committee will evaluate the status of Biden’s relationship with his family’s foreign partners and whether he is a President who is compromised or swayed by foreign dollars and influence, the CNN reported.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (C-L) arrives at the New York Supreme Court for the sentencing hearing of the Trump Organization on January 13, 2023 in New York City. A jury last month found the Trump Organization guilty and convicted the organization on charges of conspiracy, criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and filing false tax returns in a scheme to defraud the state. Photo: AFP

Further decadence

The White House has hit back at the accusations. “Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans’ top priority is to go after President Biden with politically motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories.”

Without control of the Senate, Republicans are less capable of moving forward their own legislative agenda. Therefore, the GOP will act like a destroyer in the House, using its power of veto to sabotage Biden’s and the Democrats’ agenda, Diao said.

Observers shared the view that the two-party system in the US is becoming increasingly radical and destructive to the overall political system.

Diao noted that future politics in the US will not just be the “politics of veto,” but the “politics of retaliation,” which will focus on attacking each other’s sense of character and ethics.

It’s not only about political dysfunction, but also a state of utter hostility between people, Diao added.

Citing the recent deadlock before McCarthy’s election as House Speaker, Lü said that the two parties’ fights are not only prolonged, but the internal divisions within each party are growing wider and wider, jointly contributing to the political polarization and radicalization.

Going against the greater good of the whole party, a minority of politicians prefer to maximize their own political power. This is a systemic problem at the heart of US democracy, Lü said.

This essential defect has led to fragmentation within the two parties and challenged the sustainability of the US’ two-party system, the expert said.

In other words, it is more apparent than ever that the US’ political system, which the country used to be proud of, is being weaponized and eroding the integrity of the system itself, analysts said.

From left: Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speak at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, January 11, 2023. Photo: VCG

The US and Japan are continuing to undermine regional peace and stability in 2023, as top defense and diplomatic officials from both countries vowed to strengthen their military alliance and security cooperation, citing the “greatest strategic challenge” from China. Chinese experts said that a closer military alliance with the US, while adopting a more aggressive posture, would mean a more dangerous position for Japan, and the provocative military alliance would not be welcomed by regional countries.

The military updating plan was announced on Wednesday (US time) after a day of “2+2” security talks between Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada and their US counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin in Washington. Also citing “threats” from Russia and North Korea, US and Japan officials agreed to reorganize the Okinawa-based 12th Artillery Regiment in Japan into the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment by 2025, with advanced intelligence, surveillance capabilities as well as anti-ship and transportation capabilities, according to a statement from US Department of Defense. 

The two sides agreed to promote joint research and development of cutting-edge defense equipment. Furthermore, Japan will work with US officials on the command-and-control arrangements with an emphasis on interoperability with US forces.

The two militaries will also expand joint/shared use of facilities in Japan and increase the number of exercises, which will include exercises in Japan’s southwestern islands.

According to Kyodo, Austin played down the Taiwan question while Hayashi stressed that Japan’s basic position on the Taiwan question remains unchanged. However, analysts believed that the aim and target of a saga of deployment in southwestern Japan islands, which is close to China’s Taiwan region, is obvious. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing Thursday that regarding military cooperation, the US and Japan should ensure that it does not harm the interests of any third party or regional peace and stability.

Analysts said Japan is not only breaking away from its defense-only principle and preparing to interfere in the Taiwan question, but also make itself available to the US military as a forward operating base, allowing the US to launch military operations against China from Japanese soil.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been preparing for worst-case scenarios in the Taiwan Straits, and from the very start, it has been expecting US-Japan joint forces as well as some other Western forces to interfere in the Taiwan question, they said.

All military installations in the first island chain close to the island of Taiwan, including US naval and air bases in Japan, can be obliterated by the precision weapons of the PLA Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times.

Since August, the PLA has held several large-scale military exercises that encircled and locked down the island of Taiwan, and it has also conducted naval and air drills and patrols around Japan, including those led by the aircraft carrier Liaoning, Type 055 10,000 ton-class large destroyers, as well as China-Russia joint strategic patrols.

If Japan continues, together with the US and the Taiwan secessionists, to provoke China, the PLA is sure to take countermeasures, including holding more exercises and patrols in the international waters and airspace around Japan, enhancing PLA’s combat capabilities in the far sea, Fu said.



Strange bedfellows

The 2+2 meeting came weeks after Japan revised its three key defense documents in December 2022, putting Tokyo on a path of acquiring a long-range strike capability to hit enemy bases and strengthening Self-Defense Forces units in its southwestern islands.

Experts believed that the revised security document represents a major shift in Japan’s national security strategy, which made the 2023 US-Japan 2+2 meeting different from previous ones that were held when Japan’s post-World War II principles of exclusive self-defense were not entirely subverted. 

During the meeting, both Austin and Blinken expressed support for the decisions manifested in Japan’s new national defense strategy and their decision to increase defense spending and to develop counterstrike capability, read the US statement. 

Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that the latest efforts by Japan and US, including emphasizing long-range striking ability, upgrading the Marine unit near Taiwan island, and jointly developing defense equipment, marks a strategic shift in Japan-US security cooperation from being defensive to being active and offensive.

It also means that the US is showing an attitude of encouragement regarding gradually lifting Japan’s taboo on collective self-defense or some other move that breaks through Article 9 of its Constitution that renounces war, Da said. 

“Japan may develop its own intermediate-range missiles, and it can’t rule out the US deploying intermediate-range missiles in Japan in the future,” he added. 

The officials discussed the temporary deployment of an American MQ-9 Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle unit to Kanoya Air Base in southern Japan to increase presence over the East China Sea, according to the US Department of Defense.  

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that the US-Japan alliance has shifted from an emphasis on the protection of Japan to one that stresses Tokyo’s  cooperation in achieving US strategic planning.

Japan and the US are clearly eyeing practical military preparations, but the US will undoubtedly ask Japan to do more in the future to share the responsibility and costs of a possible conflict, Li said. 

“The ostensibly closer US-Japan alliance actually puts Japan in a riskier and more sacrificial position,” he added. 

On the other hand, experts noted that although the US is trying to strengthen its control over Japan in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan is also expertly inducing the US to serve its own strategic needs. 

Japan hopes to benefit from the China-US competition. If there is a dispute between China and Japan in the East China Sea or over the Taiwan question, Japan will not hesitate to ask the US to participate and “do something” to serve its own needs, said Li.

“The strengthening of the US-Japan military alliance is clearly about calculating and using each other for temporary advantages,” Li remarked. 

Destroyers of stability

The 2+2 security talks paved the way for the Friday summit between US President Joe Biden and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on security and economic issues. Media reported that the leaders’ meeting will highlight enhancing military ties as well as a Japan’s intensification of chip restrictions against China. 

It also came after Kishida’s meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, during which an agreement was signed that allows deployment of British and Japanese troops on each others’ territory for training and other operations.

Analysts said that the diplomatic and military moves by Japan and its allies will be destructive to the stability of the Asia-Pacific region and the global security order, and will not be supported by countries in the region. 

“Northeast Asia still contains many opportunities and conditions to develop multilateral cooperation and build an economic circle, such as the resources of Russia and Mongolia, the technology and capital of Japan and South Korea, and the market and manufacturing capacity of China,” said Da, “The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, one year after its entry into force, has also given a significant boost to regional economic recovery and development.”

However, the “2+2” security talks, which play up the “China threats” around economic security and geopolitics and create confrontation, are not conducive to stable and healthy cooperation in Northeast Asia, Da said. 

Introducing geopolitical confrontation and bloc politics are not conducive to sustainable prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific and will not be welcomed by regional countries, the expert said.