Jreng! US Creates New 'Weapon' Against China, RI Enters

The United States (US) began a series of meetings with ministers from the Asia-Pacific in Los Angeles on Thursday (8/9/2022) local time. The meeting aims to 'counter China's growing influence' in the region.

The two-day event was the first face-to-face meeting between members of the new Indo-Pacific Economic Prosperity Framework (IPEF). The initiative was launched by US President Joe Biden in May.

IPEF brings together a number of countries. Not only the US, but also Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Japan, South Korea (South Korea), Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

AFP called the alliance an "open platform" that could eventually include other countries. But there is no Taiwan in it, a self-governing island that China claims as its own.

"It is past time for the United States to have an affirmative concrete economic vision in the region," US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said at the opening of the summit, noting that the alliance's 14 members account for more than 40% of global GDP.

With this new trade partnership, the Biden administration hopes to strengthen its presence in a region where relations had cooled off with the United States under former president Donald Trump. Trump's "America First" isolationist policies led him to withdraw the US from an Asia-focused trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The move was later criticized as a 'handover of land to China' in an economically important part of the world. Washington also hopes to establish common standards across the region, although it will not promote access to its domestic markets by means of traditional free trade agreements.

The discussion itself will focus on four main points, namely the digital economy, supply chains, green energy, and the fight against corruption. Even so, talk of a free trade agreement is unpopular in the US, where public opinion sees it as a threat to American jobs.