APEC summit
Biden emphasizes US leadership in the Pacific region
“The United States is a Pacific power,” emphasized US President Joe Biden at the APEC summit in San Francisco. photo
© Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP/dpa
The US and China are both working to expand their influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Even a crisis discussion between competitors in California won’t change that.
During the conversation the day before, Xi asked him why the USA was so involved in the Pacific region. The answer is: “Because we are a Pacific nation,” said Biden. The USA ensured peace and stability in the region. “We’re not going away.” Both the US and China are trying to expand their influence in the region.
The Apec Group
21 countries around the Pacific work together in the APEC group. In addition to the USA and China, these also include Russia, Japan and South Korea. Around 40 percent of the world’s population lives in the APEC countries. The bloc together generates around 60 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP). The group’s goal is to strengthen member states’ economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region by reducing trade barriers.
Biden said the economic potential within the group is endless. “The United States remains critical to the future of the region, and the region is more important to the United States than ever.”
Courting investors
This year’s APEC summit was overshadowed by Biden’s bilateral meeting with Xi on the sidelines. The presidents sat down for the first time in a year at a property outside San Francisco on Wednesday for a lengthy conversation aimed at stabilizing strained relations between the two largest economies. Xi then also attended the APEC summit.
The competition between the USA and China was once again evident at the group meeting, as both countries competed for the favor of large companies and investors from the other APEC countries. Biden praised the United States and its corporations there as business partners with high standards, fair practices, worker protection, world-class innovation and commitment to environmental protection.
Xi also promoted investment at the APEC summit and painted an extremely rosy picture of the state of the Chinese economy. He described the “socialist market economy” as the country’s strength and said that China’s economy had “steadily recovered and developed for the better” this year. This emerges from a speech manuscript distributed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
In fact, China’s economy has recently lacked some momentum. An upswing at the beginning of the year after the end of the strict Corona restrictions quickly subsided again. People in China are consuming less and, on top of that, the crisis of large, heavily indebted real estate developers is weighing on economic performance.
Competition between the largest economies
With regard to China, Biden once again assured that the aim was to shape the competition between Washington and Beijing responsibly. “This is what the world expects from us,” he emphasized. “And I promise you that we will do just that.” Both countries have differences. But the USA did not want a conflict with China and had no intention of decoupling its economy from China’s. A stable relationship between the two largest economies is not only good for the USA and China, but for the entire world. Xi also assured that his country is not seeking conflict.
Biden has placed a particular foreign policy focus on the Indo-Pacific since taking office – also to counter China’s desire for power in the region. No other region of the world has the US government devoted so much space and time to it in the past two years.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the region several times and in return rolled out the red carpet for many of their partners in Washington. The US President also revived several discussion formats with Asian partners. There were also various trips by his cabinet members to the Indo-Pacific region. Even in the past few days, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have been on extensive trips to Asia, despite the parallel frantic diplomatic efforts in the Middle East conflict.
Roughly speaking, the Indo-Pacific refers to a region from the Indian to the northern Pacific Ocean, which includes most of Asia and extends to the west coast of the USA.