US to send official to Tokyo dedicated to monitoring China

The department has already added about 20 similar officials in charge of monitoring China to the US embassies in other capitals, including Bangkok, Brussels, Rome and Sydney. The Tokyo posting will be Washington’s first of its kind in East Asia, the sources said.

The officers are tasked with collecting and analysing information regarding China’s inroads into the region or country where they are based.

In addition to monitoring China’s actions, the official to be sent to Tokyo will be in charge of promoting the establishment of supply chains for semiconductors and other vital goods that do not rely on China, the sources said.

While seeking to stabilise relations with China, the Biden administration continues to view the Asian power as its only competitor with “both intent to reshape the international order and the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it”.

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The Regional China Officer programme is now part of the so-called China House, a State Department-based unit created in December 2022 to better coordinate the US approach to Beijing.

The official to be assigned to the Tokyo embassy will be affiliated with the unit formally called the Office of China Coordination, which is believed to be staffed with 60 to 70 members.

As Washington and a bipartisan majority of US lawmakers share the view that Beijing is the most serious geopolitical threat, the Central Intelligence Agency also established a special unit focused on China in October 2021.