China is said to be on “high alert” as US President Joe Biden hosts the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David this week to deepen technological and defence ties – building what some observers have called a “de facto Asian Nato” on China’s doorstep.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be joining Biden on Friday at the US presidential retreat in rural Maryland for the first three-way summit of its kind.
They are expected to announce plans for expanded cooperation on ballistic missile defence systems and technology development, senior US officials told Reuters.
They are likely to also agree to set up a new three-way crisis hotline and gather annually in the future, Reuters quoted the officials as saying.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China was opposed to “the cobbling together of various small circles by the countries concerned”.
“[China] also opposes practices that exacerbate confrontation and jeopardise the strategic security of other countries,” Wang said.
Lu Chao, dean of the Institute of American and East Asian Studies at Liaoning University in northeastern China, said Friday’s meeting could lead to a trilateral military alliance that would hit a nerve in Beijing.