In Flight Reading: Biden’s Trip to Northeast Asia

Vice President Joseph Biden with China's Xi Jinping during a visit in February 2012.

Vice President Joseph Biden with China’s Xi Jinping during a visit in February 2012. Biden travels to Northeast Asia this week. Antonio Villaraigosa’s flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.

On December 2, 2013, Vice President Joseph Biden will arrive in Tokyo for the start of a week-long trip in Northeast Asia where he will visit Japan, China, and South Korea. Biden travels to a region still experiencing significant tension over the Chinese leadership’s decision to announce an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea last week. The CSIS Asia Team analyzed the implications of China’s new ADIZ in a Critical Questions on the topic.

Biden’s visit is timely and will aim to demonstrate continued U.S. attention to Asia following President Obama’s no-show at APEC and the East Asia Summit during the October U.S. government shutdown. On the security front, expect Biden to express concerns over the ADIZ with China and re-assure U.S. allies.

On economic issues, Biden will reportedly look to discuss progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. Biden will also, after Secretary Lew’s visit to China in November, seek a follow-on readout from Zhongnanhai on the economic dimensions of the recent Third Plenum of China’s top party leadership. To that end, CSIS Simon Chair Matthew Goodman has just written a new assessment of Asia’s political-economic progress and trade developments for the final quarter of 2013.

The White House has made the case that Biden knows President Xi Jinping of China as well as any foreign leader, given their past exchanges while Xi was Vice President. CSIS Freeman Chair Christopher Johnson recently explained that Xi has consolidated control over China’s political system much faster than some anticipated, and arguably has demonstrated his grip on key levers of power following the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee, as this expert panel discussed on November 22.

Biden will then visit Seoul where he will call on President Park Geun-hye in a follow up to her U.S. visit back in April. North Korea will undoubtedly be high on the agenda, given the abduction of a U.S. veteran of the Korean War and Pyongyang’s latest agitations regarding its nuclear program. Korea Chair Victor Cha described the plight of senior citizen Merrill Newman here. Madame Park’s government has also expressed interest in joining TPP.

The Obama administration addressed U.S. interests in the Asia Pacific on the domestic front in the form of a speech by National Security Advisor Susan Rice on November 20, which CSIS Japan Chair Michael Green analyzed here on cogitASIA. During the speech, Rice announced that President Obama will travel to Asia in April 2014.

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