OPINION:
When the Soviet Union began its effort to take control of Europe at the end of World War II, the United States joined with its Western allies to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The alliance has remained a successful bulwark against Russian expansion for nearly 75 years. Now is the time for the U.S. to consider creating an economic version of NATO with its democratic friends, allies, and trading partners in East Asia to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s routine aggression.
Japan has remained a top U.S. ally since the end of World War II and, like the United States, has a vested interest in keeping China’s aggression at bay. Japan is not alone, either. The Philippines, South Korea, Australia and Thailand are all similarly situated.
Keeping their economies strong, on top of strengthening military alliance with them, is one of the best strategies the U.S. can employ to combat Beijing’s power gambits. History teaches us that while military power can sometimes outlast economic power for a long time, military power eventually depends on having a successful economic base.
The Biden administration appears to understand the importance of creating more economic coalitions with America’s allies in East Asia. That’s why, last week, it struck a deal with Japan that would allow Japanese cars to qualify for a new electric vehicle tax credit — to give the country incentive to reduce its dependence on Chinese raw materials for its electric vehicle batteries.
Unfortunately, however, not every politician and interest group supports the White House’s Southeast Asia economic strategy. For example, unions that represent American autoworkers oppose President Biden’s recent tax credit deal with Japan because they prefer policies that give the companies and workforces an advantage. But if China is as significant a threat as most experts believe it is, some give-and-take will be required.
While the Biden administration is strong enough to hold its ground amid these third-party lobbying campaigns, a more concerning roadblock to Mr. Biden’s creation of more U.S.-Southeast Asia economic alliances is the reality that some Chinese companies — even some associated with the People’s Liberation Army — have cut deals with companies doing business in Japan and other allied Southeast Asian countries.
For example, while the United States continues doing everything it can to stop China (and Huawei in particular) from dominating the 5G marketplace, some Japanese companies are, according to The Wall Street Journal, “fueling China’s leap ahead and making money doing it.” No wonder many analysts believe the so-called recent 5G alliance between the United States and Japan is destined to fail.
Japanese companies collaborating with China on 5G may be the most egregious example, but it’s far from the only one. In fact, just weeks ago, Democratic and Republican members of Congress sent letters to the Treasury Department expressing concern that Sony, a multinational conglomerate based in Japan, is using predatory business practices to maintain a monopoly — a clear violation of the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement.
This is especially problematic because the company is partnering with Tencent, which recently agreed to a video cooperation pact with Douyin, the ByteDance-owned Chinese counterpart of TikTok. This is no minor threat. As Decouple China PAC’s Paul Boardman put it, Tencent — “through its ownership stakes in companies such as WeChat, Snapchat, Spotify, and Tesla and partnerships with ones such as Tencent — the 10th wealthiest [company] in the world … may be able to collect more information on the public than any other company.”
Yet Japan has yet to scrutinize the companies within its borders that continue to work with dangerous, CCP-affiliated actors like this one.
For Mr. Biden’s East Asia economic strategy to be successful in the long term, Japan and the U.S.’ other regional allies will have to cooperate to have their engagement with the CCP marketplace with maximum security and minimal vulnerability. The White House can ensure this by continuing to offer these countries more access to American markets, which will, in turn, limit their trading in key technology fields and reduce overall dependence on the apparatchiks in China.
• Jianli Yang is founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and the author of “For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth.”
Correction: In a previous version of the column, Tencent was described incorrectly.
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