U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has called on the world’s leading economies to develop an “anti-coercion coalition” to counter what he described as economic pressure by China to achieve Beijing’s political goals “and bend nations to its will.”
“If the world does not organize against economic coercion, Beijing will continue to prey on other countries and their economies, large or small, developed or developing, near or far,” Emanuel said Monday during an event at the University of Tokyo, adding that a coordinated response would help keep China's “economic weaponization” in check.
“The world today must develop a comprehensive collective response to combat economic coercion equal to the collective comprehensive actions that China has taken,” the ambassador said, accusing Beijing of engaging in a variety of measures such as trade, investment and tourism restrictions, as well as boycotts, cyberattacks, detentions and intellectual property theft.