[Public Voices] Korea-Japan Historical Issues Sacrificed for Biden's Happiness

U.S. President Joe Biden is a China expert. He played a significant role in establishing the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing in 1978 and, as a senator, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and vice president, he held talks and negotiations with Deng Xiaoping (1979), Jiang Zemin (2001), Hu Jintao (2011), and in 2013, with Xi Jinping. President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met eight times in 2011 and 2012. Biden was positive about China and actively supported China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Biden’s expectations and hopes that China would change turned into disappointment. China expanded state-owned enterprises to strengthen control over strategic industries, and officials blatantly stole corporate secrets by forcing technology transfers from foreign companies. Alongside economic growth, the political system became increasingly authoritarian. As China’s economy grew, the U.S. supply chain weakened, and 2 million jobs disappeared.

Biden’s sense of betrayal toward Xi Jinping led to a China policy. This was the ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy, a pressure policy on China under the Obama-Biden administration. White House and State Department experts familiar with Japan wanted close ties with South Korea and Japan to contain China regionally. The problem was South Korea. The ‘Miseon and Hyosun incident’ in 2002 and the Roh Moo-hyun administration’s efforts to rectify historical issues triggered ongoing conflicts over comfort women, forced labor, Dokdo, and East Sea naming, worsening tensions not only between South Korea and Japan but also between South Korea and the U.S. The U.S. House of Representatives’ resolution on Japanese military forced comfort women, reflecting the efforts of the Korean American community in the U.S., became a new benchmark in Korea-Japan relations.

The U.S. government was in a hurry. Wendy Sherman, then Deputy Secretary of State and a key figure in the Obama administration’s China pressure strategy, visited Seoul ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s 2015 visit to the U.S. and said, “You are getting cheap applause by blaming past enemies.” This was a move considering the U.S. Northeast Asia strategy of the Korea-U.S.-Japan trilateral alliance but was enough to anger not only South Korea but also the Korean American community in the U.S. Under pressure from Korean Americans, members of Congress sent a message to the State Department that “no strategy surpasses human rights in the U.S.” The State Department backed down, saying that without a truth-based resolution of historical issues, it is impossible to tighten Korea-Japan relations. The Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance, a core of the Obama-Biden administration’s ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy, was not realized.

The Biden administration, launched in 2021, again attempted to pressure China. China had become more threatening. The issue of close cooperation between South Korea and Japan for the U.S. became even more important. Former experts were redeployed. Kurt Campbell, the ‘Asia czar,’ was positioned at the White House, and Wendy Sherman at the State Department. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s enthusiastic welcome by President Biden during his state visit to Washington last April, rumors circulated in Washington that Campbell would step down to care for his youngest child. Sherman, who had worked closely with Campbell, announced her retirement in June. This was possible because their roles had succeeded. Shortly thereafter, at the ‘Camp David trilateral summit,’ the ‘Camp David Principles’ were announced, promoting shared values, mutual respect, and the prosperity of the three countries and the region and world. There was no explanation anywhere about the Korea-Japan conflict issues. President Biden said, “If I look happy, it’s because I really am happy right now.” If there had been an explanation on how issues such as comfort women, forced labor, Dokdo, and East Sea naming were resolved, the Korean people and Korean Americans might have shared Biden’s happiness.

Kim Dong-seok, Representative of the Korean American Voters Coalition