Reuters, Tokyo :
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Japan on Tuesday to rally support from Washington’s closest allies in Asia, calling for deeper collaboration with Japan, India and Australia as a bulwark against China’s growing regional influence.
The East Asia visit, Pompeo’s first in more than a year, coincides with worsening tensions with China. Yet the call for a united front against Beijing is a sensitive subject for Washington’s allies, which are reliant on China for trade.
In comments before the start of a meeting of the Quad grouping of the four nations’ foreign ministers, Pompeo spoke in typically unsparing terms against Beijing’s ruling Chinese Communist Party. That was in contrast to his three counterparts, all of whom avoided calling out China directly.
“As partners in this Quad, it is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the CCP’s exploitation, corruption and coercion,”
Pompeo said, referring to the ruling party.
“We see it in the South and East China Seas, the Mekong, the Himalayas, the Taiwan Strait.”
China has denounced the Quad as an attempt to contain its development.
Pompeo’s visit was supposed to include trips to Mongolia and South Korea but was cut back to one day after President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19.
He also reiterated the Trump administration’s criticism of China’s handling of Covid-19 after it first broke out in the city of Wuhan.
