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Biden, in Japan, Calibrates Message Over Tensions With China
Biden, in Japan, Calibrates Message Over Tensions With China
(about 3 hours later)
TOKYO — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered a carefully-calibrated message of support to Japan on Tuesday, saying the United States had deep concerns with a new air defense zone created by China but stopping short of a demand that Beijing roll it back.
TOKYO — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered a carefully calibrated show of support for Japan on Tuesday, declaring the United States was “deeply concerned” about China’s move to control airspace contested with Japan. But he stopped short of demanding that China retreat, and urged the feuding neighbors to talk to each other.
As he began a weeklong trip to Asia that will take him to Beijing, Mr. Biden found himself in the midst of an increasingly tense standoff between Japan and China over Beijing’s creation of a zone of restricted airspace over contested islands in the East China Sea.
Mr. Biden’s statement, at the start of an unexpectedly challenging trip to Asia that includes a stop in Beijing, captured the strategic complexities for the United States in the tense showdown between Japan and China over disputed claims in the East China Sea.
Administration officials insisted there was no daylight between the United States and Japan on how to respond to China’s move, despite the Federal Aviation Administration’s advice to American carriers to identify themselves when entering the restricted zone. The Japanese government has instructed its carriers to ignore the Chinese demand.
China, Mr. Biden said, was trying to “unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea,” with an air defense zone that he said “raised regional tensions and increased the risk of accidents and miscalculation.” He said he would raise the American concerns in detail when he meets with the Chinese leadership on Wednesday.
“Nothing that FAA has done constitutes any acceptance or recognition of this,” said a senior administration official traveling with Mr. Biden. “The U.S. has clearly set forth that our military aircraft will continue to operate normally without regard to the A.D.I.Z.,” he added, using the acronym for air defense identification zone.
But rather than call for China to roll back the defense zone, as the Japanese government has, Mr. Biden said the two countries needed to develop “crisis management mechanisms and effective channels of communication” to avoid the risk of an accident or miscalculation.
“The U.S. government position and the Japanese government position in the A.D.I.Z. are the same,” he said, “insofar as we see this as a provocative and unilateral effort to change the status-quo and it was done in a way that is not in keeping with international norms or practices.”
“The only conflict that is worse than one that is intended is one that is unintended,” Mr. Biden said, quoting his father, as an unsmiling Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood next to him.
Still, while the United States said it would urge China not to create any other such restricted zones, officials indicated that they would focus on pressing the Chinese government not to take any provocative actions in patrolling this one, rather than on rolling it back.
For his part, Mr. Abe said the United States and Japan would “not tolerate the attempt by China to change the status quo by force.” He said both countries reaffirmed that they would not alter any joint military operations because of China’s zone, and he added, “We will not condone any action that will threaten the safety of civilian aircraft.”
The Japanese government has demanded that China roll back the air defense zone, which it perceives as an attempt by the Chinese to assert control over a clump of disputed islands, known in the Japan as the Senkaku and in China as the Diaoyu. The dispute has raised tensions in the region to their highest level in nearly two decades.
That appeared to be an attempt to smooth over a disconnect between the United States and Japan over the weekend, after the Federal Aviation Administration advised American carriers to identify themselves when entering the restricted zone. The Japanese government has instructed its carriers to ignore the Chinese demand.
For Mr. Biden, the dispute has been a distraction on a trip that he hoped would cover a range of issues, from a trans-Pacific trade agreement to the nuclear threat in North Korea.
Administration officials insisted there was no daylight between the United States and Japan on how to respond to China’s move. The F.A.A.'s guidance, they said, was no different than it would have been in any other case where a country issued a warning to planes or ships.
Still, Mr. Biden found time to tour a Japanese Internet company founded and run by a female entrepreneur. Joined by Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Cathy Russell, the State Department’s ambassador at large for global women’s issues, he chatted with five female employees in the banquette at the company’s sleek Tokyo offices.
“Nothing that F.A.A. has done constitutes any acceptance or recognition of this,” said a senior administration official who is traveling with Mr. Biden. “The U.S. has clearly set forth that our military aircraft will continue to operate normally.”
“Do your husbands like you working full-time?” Mr. Biden asked the women. He also inquired about whether the company, known as DeNA, offered child-care in its office.
Administration officials said Mr. Biden would urge China not to create any other such restricted zones and to show restraint in policing this one. But neither the vice president nor his aides made any reference to asking the Chinese to rescind its action.
Analysts and former diplomats said that reassuring Japan of America’s commitment to the region was particularly important given creeping worries in Tokyo that the United States might no longer have the financial ability, or even the will, to maintain its dominant military position in the Asia-Pacific.
The Japanese government perceives the air defense zone, which covers a wide swath of the East China Sea, as an attempt by the Chinese to assert control over a clump of disputed islands, known in the Japan as the Senkaku and in China as the Diaoyu. The dispute has raised tensions in the region to their highest level in nearly two decades.
Although the Obama administration registered its displeasure with China’s so-called air defense identification zone by sending two unarmed B-52 bombers on a mission through it, federal regulators, as a safety precaution, advised American civilian flights to identify themselves before entering the airspace — in compliance with the Chinese regulations.
In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said China’s defense zone was fully in compliance with international law. Mr. Hong suggested that China was open to the idea of establishing crisis-management mechanisms. But he quickly added, Japan was not.
That was viewed by some in Japan as a mixed message, since the Japanese government had told its airlines to ignore the Chinese demand. Japanese newspapers began worrying about “allies no longer walking in lock step,” and government officials sought clarification from Washington.
“The Japanese side unilaterally on one hand declares they want dialogue but then they close the door to dialogue,” he said. “We ask the Japanese side to change their mistakes.”
The State Department quickly said that the advice did not mean that the United States was recognizing the air defense zone. And American officials have told the Japanese that the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision was a safety recommendation — far short of an order, though major American airlines said they were heeding it.
For Mr. Biden, the dispute has been a distraction on a trip that he hoped would cover a range of other issues, from a trans-Pacific trade agreement to the nuclear threat in North Korea.
Still, a lingering ambiguity has led Japanese officials to give contradictory assessments of American intentions. On Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that his government had confirmed through “a diplomatic route” that the United States had not asked airlines to file flight plans with the Chinese.
But Mr. Biden still found time to tour a Japanese Internet company founded and run by a female entrepreneur, Tomoko Namba. Joined by Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, he chatted with five female employees in a leather banquette at the company’s sleek Tokyo offices.
“While having a deep discussion of the issues, we hope to respond with close coordination between Japan and the United States,” Mr. Abe said of his scheduled talks on Tuesday with Mr. Biden.
“Do your husbands like you working full-time?” Mr. Biden asked the women, who nodded energetically. He also inquired whether the company, known as DeNA, offered child-care service and whether female employees were allowed to work from home.
Administration officials said earlier that Mr. Biden would leave no doubt in Japan or China that the United States views the Chinese move as a provocation and plans to disregard it, at least as far as military operations go.
Mr. Biden seemed to delight in being accompanied around Tokyo by Ms. Kennedy, whose name has given her celebrity status in a post that has frequently been held by prominent political figures, including one of Mr. Biden’s predecessors, Walter F. Mondale.
“We have real concerns with this move by China because it raises real questions about their intentions,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting Mr. Biden’s message. “It constitutes a unilateral change to the status quo in the region, a region that is already fraught.”
Before his meeting with Mr. Abe, the vice president jokingly introduced himself by saying, “My name is Joe Biden, and I’m accompanying the ambassador” – a line that echoed John F. Kennedy’s famous quip when he was overshadowed on the presidential trip to France in 1961 by his glamorous wife, Jacqueline Kennedy.
Still, the official said, Mr. Biden would not deliver a formal diplomatic protest to Beijing, where he is to meet with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday. His aides are determined not to allow the matter to dominate his trip, during which the vice president also hopes to build support for a trans-Pacific trade agreement and coordinate a response to the nuclear threat from North Korea.
Mr. Biden cultivated friendly ties with Mr. Xi when he was China’s vice president. But their encounter this time may be more difficult.
Analysts and former diplomats said the Chinese government was already using the recommendation to American airlines to pressure Japan. On Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, commended the American move as showing “a constructive attitude,” while scolding Japanese criticism of the air zone as “irresponsible.”
“The Chinese are already trying to portray this as daylight between the U.S. and Japanese positions, when there actually isn’t any,” said Kevin Maher, a former United States diplomat in Japan who is now a senior adviser at NMV Consulting in New York.
“The optics may look bad, but all the U.S. is saying is that we don’t want commercial airliners to take an arrow for the team,” Mr. Maher added. “We need to make clear that we will keep sending military aircraft into the declared zone.”
The tension with China comes at a delicate moment, with the United States pushing Japan to wrap up negotiations on the regional trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Inspired by comments Mr. Abe made about the importance of women to the Japanese economy — and by Ms. Kennedy — Mr. Biden has left time for a visit to a Japanese company owned and run by a female entrepreneur. He will be joined by Ms. Kennedy, who took up her post in Tokyo just three weeks ago.
For Mr. Biden, though, the region’s tensions will be inescapable. In addition to the conflict over the disputed islands, Japanese and South Korean leaders are feuding amid a resurgence of animosities that date to Japanese colonialism and World War II.
Before taking office, Mr. Abe, a conservative, struck a nerve with statements about Japan’s culpability — or lack of it — in the war. Since then, however, he has not visited the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to the Japanese war dead that has become a fraught symbol because it also honors people who are war criminals. Mr. Biden will likely encourage him to keep staying away.
With the United States trying to reinvigorate President Obama’s shift to Asia after he canceled a trip to the region because of the government shutdown, analysts will watch Mr. Biden’s words as a clue to America’s resolve to maintain its military presence here.
“The most important thing is for Vice President Biden to show that the U.S. will work on China to end its unilateral actions,” said Ichiro Fujisaki, who served as Japanese ambassador to the United States until last year.
