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Harris’ trip to Asia: A Funeral & A hard Mission

Harris’ trip to Asia: A Funeral & A hard Mission

Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)

Attending funerals on behalf of the United States is normally a straightforward assignment for a vice president, but Kamala Harris will confront controversy at nearly every turn as she visits Asia for the memorial honoring former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. American allies are seeking clarity after mixed messages over whether President Joe Biden would send troops to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, a potential conflict that could swiftly engulf the rest of the region. There’s the potential for more provocations from North Korea, which test-fired a missile shortly before Harris’ departure Sunday from Washington.

Vice President Kamala Harris departs for travel to Japan and South Korea from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Sunday Sept. 25, 2022. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)
A protester holds a poster showing the image of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at a gathering a park in Tokyo Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, demanding the cancellation of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state funeral. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)

Meanwhile, South Korea and Japan are inching toward a reconciliation that would heal some of the wounds left from World War II, with the U.S. gingerly trying to nudge along the process. And there’s resentment over a new U.S. law that makes electric vehicles built outside of North America ineligible for subsidies.

Even Abe’s state funeral Tuesday itself is a sensitive topic in Japan, where such memorials are uncommon and the late leader’s legacy remains disputed. Abe, a conservative nationalist in a country that embraced pacifism after World War II, was assassinated with a homemade firearm nearly three months ago.

Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs for travel to Japan and South Korea from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Sunday Sept. 25, 2022. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

In a reflection of deep divisions, an elderly man reportedly set himself on fire to protest the funeral, and more demonstrations are expected in the coming days. The controversy has politically weakened Japan’s current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, at a time when his government is planning to further Abe’s goal of strengthening the country’s military.

Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol agreed to accelerate efforts to mend ties frayed over Japan’s past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula as they held their countries’ first summit talks in nearly three years on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Seoul officials said Thursday, Sept. 21, 2022 .(AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)

If Japan moves forward with its proposed military spending, it will have the world’s third-largest defense budget in the coming years as tensions rise between China and the United States over Taiwan. The island is a self-governing democracy, but Beijing views it as part of its territory and has pledged to reunify it with the mainland.

Harris, who is leading a delegation of current and former U.S. officials to the funeral, plans to spend three nights in Tokyo. She is expected to meet with Kishida, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Harris plans to meet with Japanese business leaders as the U.S. seeks to expand computer chip manufacturing and visit with U.S. sailors serving on an American destroyer at a nearby naval base.

FILE – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a press conference in Sydney, Australia, Friday, June 10, 2022. Australia will be represented by its government leader plus three former leaders at Shinzo Abe’s state funeral this month in an extraordinary mark of respect for Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. Albanese said on Thursday, Sept. 8 that former Prime Ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull would join Australia’s official delegation. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

It will be the vice president’s second trip to Asia since taking office in January 2021.

At a stop in South Korea, she intends to see President Yoon Suk Yeol and host a roundtable discussion with leading women — a delicate topic in a country where Yoon has faced criticism for his male-dominated administration.

Relations between South Korea and Japan remain strained because of the legacy of Japan’s aggression during World War II. Koreans are seeking compensation over forced labor and sex slavery that occurred when Japan occupied their country.

Yoon Suk Yeol, President of South Korea, addresses the 77th session of the General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Kishida and Yoon announced Thursday at the United Nations that they will accelerate their work to repair their two countries’ relationship.

Biden met separately with each leader, and the U.S. is eager to see the two allies resolve their issues as it seeks a united front against China.

Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Taiwan remains a flashpoint, and tensions have been rising in recent months.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., visited the Taiwan in August, outraging Beijing, which responded by holding military exercises. Although Chinese leaders have said they seek peaceful reunification with Taiwan, the exercises are a reminder of the possibility that Beijing could use force.

FILE – In this Taiwan Presidential Office photo, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a meeting with Taiwanese President President Tsai Ing-wen, right, in Taipei, Taiwan, on Aug. 3, 2022. China’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of violating its commitment to the “one-China” principle and interfering in internal Chinese affairs on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, after the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee approved a new bill that could significantly increase American defense support for the island of Taiwan. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP, File)

China also fired missiles into waters near some of Japan’s southern islands, a reminder that any conflict over Taiwan would be a threat to other countries as well.

The U.S. has 55,000 troops based in Japan, with more than half on the southern island of Okinawa. Earlier this month, Okinawa reelected a governor who calls for a reduction in the U.S. presence there.

FILE – President Joe Biden meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, at the U.N. headquarters. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, released its negotiating objectives for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a deal with the 12 nations launched in May. Among them, the U.S. wants the Indo-Pacific countries to improve their labor and environmental standards and ensure their markets remain open to competition, while also taking steps to ease supply-chain backlogs at border crossings.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Biden said in a recent CBS “60 Minutes” interview that the U.S. would send its own troops to defend Taiwan if China invaded. But there is no formal defense treaty with Taiwan and administration officials have repeatedly said Biden’s comments don’t reflect a change in policy, muddying the waters over what, exactly, the U.S. would do.

“It is ambiguous,” said Ja-Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. “But whether it’s strategically ambiguous, I don’t know.”

More controversy awaits Harris in South Korea, where there’s outrage over new U.S. rules that make electric cars built outside of North America ineligible for U.S. government subsidies. The policy was included in the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark piece of legislation that includes nearly $375 billion for climate change initiatives.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a ceremony marking the country’s Memorial Day at the Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul, South Korea Monday, June 6, 2022. (Chung Sung-Jun/Pool Photo via AP)

Yoon, South Korea’s recently elected president, had spent his first few months in office emphasizing his country’s close ties with the U.S., but now officials are expressing a sense of betrayal. They want the rules to be postponed until 2025, when Korean automaker Hyundai plans to complete a new factory in Georgia.

Yoon’s government is also considering whether it should file a complaint at the World Trade Organization over the law, which it sees as potentially violating trade rules and an agreement between the two countries.

South Korean officials are also seeking cooperation with European nations such as Germany and Sweden, which they say share similar concerns about their electric vehicles exported to the U.S., to put more pressure on Washington over the “discriminatory” withdrawals of subsidies.

The dispute is an unpleasant sequel to Biden’s trip to Seoul earlier this year, when he celebrated automaker Hyundai’s plans to invest $10 billion in the United States. About half of that money is for the Georgia factory.

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