PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – President Joe Biden is seeking to win friends and influence Southeast Asian nations as he ratchets up efforts to isolate Russia and tame China during a weekend visit to Cambodia.

 

Biden invited countries in the region to the White House in May and emphasized his administration's desire to build stronger relations in remarks at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' annual summit.

 

Past administrations have been criticized for not attending the gathering that China's Xi Jinping usually visits but won't attend this year.

 

(more)

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/11/12/president-biden-works-friendships-southeast-asia-isolate-russia/10680640002/

 

 

Why it will be hard for Biden to woo Southeast Asia

President Joe Biden headed to a summit in Southeast Asia with an audacious plan: To ask China’s neighbors to stiff-arm the regional behemoth, and live with the potential consequences.

 

China has invested billions in infrastructure, manufacturing and financial services in many of these countries. And Chinese imports ranging from rubber, to palm oil to computer parts are central to their economies.

 

Biden will need quite a counter to rally these countries to his cause at two summits in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: the annual meeting of the U.S. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, on Saturday and the East Asia Summit on Sunday.

 

(more)

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/11/biden-southeast-asia-00066594

 

 

At least the Biden Administration is taking concrete steps to reel in Chinese theft of intellectual property like the Chips Act and reinstating US membership in the trade alliance against China. I forget what it's acronym is. All Trump could do was install a tariff and falsely claim that the Chinese were paying it, testament to his intellectual incapacity and dishonesty.

Economists have identifed what is a fundamental rule of economics. They call it "gravity". Basically, it says the closer one country is to another, the more likely they are to trade with each other. Given that China is the world's 2nd biggest or biggest economy, and its proximity to China, there isn't much that Biden can do in that regard. Better to count on Xi who seems to be doing his best to damage the Chinese economy and alienate SE Asian nations through grandiose claims that the South China Sea is effectively a Chinese lake.

Joe Biden mixes up Cambodia and Colombia in latest high-profile gaffe

 

The slip-up comes just weeks after Mr Biden made a blunder during a speech when he asked if a deceased congresswoman was in the audience.

 

Joe Biden referred to Cambodia, which is hosting an international summit led by Southeast Asian leaders, as Colombia in another high-profile slip-up.

 

"Now that we're back together here in Cambodia, I look forward to building even stronger progress than we've already made, and I want to thank the prime minister of Colombia for his leadership as ASEAN chair and for hosting all of us," he said.

 

https://news.sky.com/story/joe-biden-mixes-up-cambodia-and-colombia-in-latest-high-profile-gaffe-12745370