Seoul, South Korea — President Joe Biden opened his journey to Asia on Friday with a deal with the U.S. tech sector, touring a Samsung pc chip plant in South Korea that may function mannequin for a $17 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility the electronics firm is constructing exterior Austin, Texas. Mr. Biden may even go to Japan throughout his six-day keep in Asia.
Whereas the president centered Friday on economics, with a message aimed largely on the U.S. viewers, the actions and intensions of America's adversaries China and North Korea will loom giant over his go to to the area.
Not lengthy earlier than Mr. Biden touched down in South Korea, Chinese language authorities introduced the beginning of navy workouts within the disputed South China Sea. The drills have been to proceed by means of Monday — a day earlier than the president meets fellow leaders of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance often called the Quad, a bunch that features Australia, India and Japan, in Tokyo.
The 4 Quad nations share issues over China's rising regional assertiveness and more and more succesful armed forces. China views the grouping as part of a U.S.-led push to impede its financial and political rise and frustrate its makes an attempt to intimidate self-governing Taiwan into accepting its demand to just accept Beijing's rule.
The opposite huge elephant in each room that President Biden will go to throughout his time in Asia is North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's nuclear weapons program.
As CBS Information senior overseas correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported on Thursday, the remoted "Hermit Kingdom" is upping the ante in its nuclear brinkmanship even because the Kim regime offers with a main COVID-19 outbreak. Joe Bermudez, an analyst on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS), informed Palmer that North Korea may very well be poised to stage its first nuclear weapons take a look at in three years "as quickly as the top of the month."
If not a nuclear take a look at, the North may ratchet up its already-remarkable yr of missile launches by firing one other long-range rocket — presumably whereas Mr. Biden is within the area. Beneath orders from Kim, North Korea has test-fired missile after missile this yr. As Palmer reported, they're all designed to hold nuclear warheads, and a few are highly effective sufficient to achieve the U.S. mainland.
Pyongyang's "preparations for a nuclear take a look at have been accomplished and they're solely on the lookout for the appropriate time," South Korean lawmaker Ha Tae-keung mentioned Friday after being briefed by Seoul's spy company.
Mr. Biden's Nationwide Safety Advisor Jake Sullivan mentioned forward of the president's arrival in South Korea that there was "actual danger of some form of provocation whereas we're within the area."
"We all know what we'll do to answer them. We have now communicated with not simply our allies, but in addition with China," he mentioned.
Chips, and "good-paying jobs for Individuals"
Navy pressure apart, Mr. Biden's go to can be a nod to certainly one of his key home priorities: growing the provide of pc chips. A semiconductor scarcity final yr harm the supply of autos, kitchen home equipment and different items. The provision crunch precipitated increased inflation that has crippled Mr. Biden's public approval scores and precipitated his administration to deal with growing home manufacturing.
"These little chips," Mr. Biden mentioned in remarks after he toured the Samsung plant, "are the important thing to propelling us into the subsequent period of humanity's technological growth."
Previewing the journey aboard Air Power One, Sullivan mentioned Samsung's funding in Texas would imply "good-paying jobs for Individuals and, very importantly, it'll imply extra provide chain resilience."
South Korea's new President Yoon Suk Yeol and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong have been greeting Mr. Biden on the plant on Friday. Yoon is a political newcomer who grew to become president, his first elected workplace, simply over per week in the past. He campaigned on taking a harder stance towards North Korea and strengthening the 70-year alliance with the U.S.
A part of the worldwide pc chip scarcity is the results of sturdy demand as a lot of the world has emerged from the coronavirus pandemic. However COVID-19 outbreaks and different challenges have additionally precipitated the closure of semiconductor vegetation. U.S. authorities officers have estimated that chip manufacturing is not going to be on the ranges they want till early 2023.
International pc chip gross sales totaled $151.7 billion through the first three months of this yr, a 23% leap from the identical interval in 2021, in line with the Semiconductor Business Affiliation.
Greater than 75% of worldwide chip manufacturing comes from Asia. That is a doable vulnerability the U.S. hopes to guard towards by means of extra home manufacturing and authorities funding within the sector by means of a invoice being negotiated in Congress.
The danger of Chinese language aggression towards Taiwan may presumably minimize off the move of high-end pc chips which can be wanted within the U.S. for navy gear in addition to client items. Equally, airtight North Korea's test-firing of ballistic missiles is a doable danger to South Korea's manufacturing sector, ought to the brinksmanship escalate.
When it comes to chip manufacturing, China leads the worldwide pack with a 24% share, adopted by Taiwan (21%), South Korea (19%) and Japan (13%). Solely 10% of chips are made within the U.S., in line with the Semiconductor Business Affiliation.
Samsung introduced the Texas-based plant in November of final yr. It hopes to start operations within the second half of 2024. The South Korean electronics large selected the location primarily based on a lot of elements, together with authorities incentives and the "readiness and stability" of native infrastructure.
Along with Samsung, Mr. Biden has additionally been highlighting in his latest speeches an announcement by the U.S. agency Intel to construct a semiconductor plant close to Columbus, Ohio.