Biden welcomes Japan, South Korea leaders for summit, drawing China ire

WASHINGTON – The top leaders of Japan and South Korea met Friday with President Biden at Camp David – and it’s already making China uncomfortable.

Biden, 80, welcomed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the presidential retreat in rural Maryland at around 11:30 a.m., asking them: “Ready to have some lunch?”

The president did not respond to a shouted question by a reporter asking what message the summit should send China.

The trio were expected to discuss Beijing’s growing military threat, invasive surveillance efforts, and predatory practices in East Asia, as well as North Korea’s nuclearization.

The historic tri-lateral meeting involving former adversaries has annoyed the Chinese government, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin telling reporters Friday that the meeting represents a desire to turn the Western Pacific into “a wrestling ground for geopolitical competition again.”

“No country should seek its own security at the expense of other countries’ security interests and regional peace and stability,” Wang said. “… Attempts to cobble together various exclusionary groupings and bring bloc confrontation and military blocs into the Asia-Pacific are not going to get support and will only be met with vigilance and opposition from regional countries.”

“The international community has its fair judgment on who is stoking conflicts and exacerbating tensions,” he added, apparently referencing the United States.

Relations between Tokyo and Seoul have been tense for decades after Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula in 1910 and held it through the end of World War II.

The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965, but hard feelings remain — most notably over Japan’s treatment of Korean “comfort women” during the colonial period and Tokyo’s refusal to apologize or pay reparations.

While the US has formal alliances with both South Korea and Japan, the latter two are not allied with each other.

Lingering tensions have complicated American diplomatic and military efforts in the region.

For example, when US forces conduct troop exercises with both nations during times of heightened political stress, Americans have had to function as the middleman in communications between their allies.

Beijing has repeatedly expressed concerns over the improving ties between Japan and South Korea, with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi last month dramatically telling attendees from both nations at a forum in Qingdao that they could “never become a Westerner.”

“No matter how blonde you dye your hair, how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner,” Wang said. “We must know where our roots lie.”

In an apparent attempt to convince Tokyo and Seoul not to isolate Beijing, Wang Wenbin on Friday encouraged the group to work toward peace in the Pacific.

“In a world of change and disorder on the security front, all parties should act on the vision of a community of shared security for mankind, practice true multilateralism, and jointly address various security challenges,” he said.