US envoy says Japan-Micron deal shows way forward on confronting China’s ‘coercion’
- US ambassador to Tokyo Rahm Emanuel said Washington and its ally will ‘act in unison to help companies that are targeted by China’s coercion’
- The American firm would get US$1.5 billion in incentives from Japan to make next-generation memory chips
The agreement, which Bloomberg reported would amount to about 200 billion yen (US$1.5 billion) in incentives from Japan, has a “component of confronting China’s coercion and saying that America and Japan will act in unison to help us secure our supply chain and help companies that are targeted by China’s coercion,” Emanuel said on Friday in Hiroshima, where leaders are gathering for the Group of Seven summit.
G7 leaders are set to discuss ways to fight back against Chinese economic measures during the three-day gathering. China has rejected the allegations and accused the US of bullying nations and starting trade wars in its own report on American “coercive diplomacy” released on Thursday.
“They are sending a very singular message that they will coerce companies to try to break the Western world when it comes to securing their own not only strategic assets like semiconductors, but also to try to do certain things to force a political change,” Emanuel said.
China recently announced a cybersecurity probe into imports from Micron, the US’s largest memory chip maker, citing national security reasons. The company said it was in communication with the Cyberspace Administration of China concerning the inquiry and “cooperating fully.”
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‘Don’t help a villain’: China urges Japan not to follow US’ lead on tech isolation
