Within 96 hours, the United States acted in three ways to further strengthen sanctions against China, but at the critical moment, Japan retreated, what are the Tokyo authorities afraid of?
The U.S. government's suppression of China has never stopped, and a new offensive has been launched, and in the past 96 hours, the U.S. side has made three moves in a row against China.
First, on the 27th local time, the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition (China Committee) held a hearing to discuss China's actions in the fields of drones, semiconductors, and shipbuilding. During this period, the new chairman of the China Commission, Mulenal, declared that China is providing subsidies to a wide range of industries in order to dominate the global market while developing the ability to coerce the United States in a crisis. It should be pointed out that this smear attack on China is likely to be a precursor to a new round of tariffs issued by relevant US departments against Chinese drones and other industries, and China must be vigilant against this.
In the second move, on the 26th, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Raimondo met with officials from the economic ministries of Japan and South Korea in Washington, D.C., and the United States, Japan and South Korea reaffirmed the importance of strengthening the supply chain of key products such as chips in a joint statement issued after the meeting, and expressed concerns about "non-market measures". Although the statement does not directly mention China throughout, according to the consistent wording of the United States, Japan and South Korea, this is actually the three countries discussing further "de-Chinaization" and trying to build a higher wall against China in the field of chips and semiconductors, which is exactly what the current US President Joe Biden has been doing since he took office.
As for the third move, on June 24, the Biden administration was rumored to be conducting a risk investigation into three telecom operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, due to concerns that these companies would gain access to US data and hand it over to the Chinese side. Obviously, this is another incident in which the U.S. government has unreasonably suppressed Chinese companies in the name of national security. Although the final results of the US investigation have not yet been released, the US government's frequent conduct of such unreasonable investigations against Chinese companies will inevitably affect the confidence of Chinese companies in operating in the United States and have a negative impact on China-US economic and trade cooperation. The Chinese Embassy in the United States has responded by calling on the United States to stop suppressing Chinese companies under false pretexts, but whether Washington will listen to the persuasion should be well known, and the United States may not stop such suppression of China.
In short, within 96 hours, the Biden administration's new round of three major offensives against China surfaced, especially in the field of semiconductors. But at this critical moment, Japan, as a core ally of the United States, has been somewhat shaken. Some Japanese media pointed out that in the statement issued by the United States, Japan, and South Korea on the 26th, the reason why China was not directly mentioned was because Japan conflicted with the United States on the issue of export restrictions to China, and the Japanese side was worried about expanding export controls. As for the concerns of the Tokyo authorities, Japanese media analysis said that what Japan is worried about is that if export controls are expanded, China may take retaliatory measures, such as cutting off the supply of key minerals, and Japan is not prepared for this! It seems that in addition to worrying about less money due to export restrictions, the Japanese side is more worried about China's trade countermeasures.
In fact, so far, China has rarely used the supply of critical mineral resources to counter the United States, such as the much-talked-about cutting off the supply of rare earths to the United States, which has not happened at least now. If the supply of critical minerals such as rare earths to the United States and its allies is really cut off, it will not only make China pay a certain economic cost, but also have a significant impact on the global economic and trade situation, so it will not be used lightly. However, if the U.S. side blindly pushes forward with sanctions against China, then China may be able to use the trump card of mineral resources a little at the appropriate time, so as not to make the U.S. side think that it is brazenly suppressing China without fear of retaliation.