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(Updates with the start of talks; past Tokyo)
By Simon Lewis and David Brunnström
TOKYO, July 29 (Reuters) – The United States and Japan, longtime allies, introduced a new high-level economic discussion on Friday aimed at pushing back China and countering the disruption of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Japanese media said the so-called “two plus two” economic ministerial assembly in Washington deserves to agree on joint studies on next-generation semiconductors to identify a safe source of important components.
The assembly was headed by U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Commerce Minister Koichi Hagiuda.
“As the world’s first and third largest economies, we work together to protect the rules-based economic order, an order in which all countries can participate, compete and thrive,” Blinken said at the opening session.
Blinken said recent global events, in addition to COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, have demonstrated the vulnerability of critical source chains, while a number of developing countries are grappling with the debt burden due to unsustainable and non-transparent lending practices.
“The Coercive and Retaliatory Economic Practices of the People’s Republic of China force countries to make possible options that compromise their security, intellectual property and economic independence,” he said.
SEMICONDUCTOR
Japan’s Hayashi called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a serious challenge to foreign order and — in an obvious reference to China, he did not call it directly — referred to attempts to “use economic influence unfairly and opaquely to achieve . . . strategic interests and convert the existing foreign order. “
“To address this issue well, it is imperative to talk about foreign policy and economic policy as a unit rather than talking about foreign policy and economic policy individually,” Hayashi said.
Japan’s Nikkei Shimbun newspaper said the semiconductor development center will be set up in Japan until the end of this year to search for 2-nanometer semiconductor chips.
It will come with a prototype production line and is expected to start generating semiconductors until 2025, he said, adding that the agreement to identify the medium would be delivered in a document to be issued after the meeting.
Taiwan now makes the vast majority of 10-nanometer semiconductors, used in products such as smartphones, and the stability of the source raises concerns over a factor involving Taiwan and China, which considers the island a renegade province.
Friday comes at a time of heightened tensions over Taiwan.
On Thursday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned in a call with US President Joe Biden that he was opposed to betting with fire on Taiwan, underscoring Beijing’s concerns about a possible stopover on the island claimed by China through US President Nancy Pelosi.
It also comes after the U. S. House of Representatives has been able to. . . The U. S. navy on Thursday passed a sweeping law to subsidize the domestic semiconductor while competing with Chinese and foreign manufacturers.