Biden to use meeting with Japan's prime minister to send 'clear signal' to China

President Joe Biden plans to use his meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday to send a signal to China that the countries are united in their opposition to recent aggression against Taiwan as the US seeks to refocus its foreign policy in East Asia. In what will be Biden's first in-person meeting with a foreign leader at the White House, the two leaders are expected to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, the Biden administration's North Korea policy review, regional security issues, the climate crisis, relations with China and technology policy, according to a senior administration official. 

But it is China that is expected to be one of the biggest focuses. The leaders are expected to speak in-depth about China, the official said, as the US and Japan "seek to play a steady, careful role to underscore our mutual commitment to maintenance of peace and stability, and to take steps to calm tensions and to discourage provocations." "We're trying to send a clear signal that some of the steps that China is taking," including its recent actions in Taiwan's air defense zone, are "antithetical to the mission of maintaining peace and stability," the official said.

China sent 25 warplanes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone on Monday, which was the largest breach of that space since the island began regularly reporting such activity in September, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said.

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