US president tries to make case that countries would improve economically if they welcomed immigrants, but some warn that his words are a diplomatic blunder.

Struggling US-China ties, a human rights shock and a student in big trouble: these are the highlights from the SCMP’s overseas correspondents from April 2024.

Japan’s ambition to send its first astronaut to the moon by 2028 is seen as a move to prevent China from scoring a propaganda coup, analysts say.

Daniel Kritenbrink and Sarah Beran are meeting Chinese officials to maintain ‘open lines of communication’, State Department says.

The Philippine president said the cooperation agreement signed in Washington will change the dynamic in Asean and around the contested waterway.

‘These meetings were not about any one other nation. This was about deepening and revitalising existing alliances and partnerships and strengthening some new ones.’

High-profile meetings are meant to convey something ‘impressive to the world community and extremely useful for the bilateral relationship’, says US analyst.

‘China’s current external stance and military actions present … the greatest strategic challenge,’ Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tells joint session of Congress.

Kishida, who became Japan’s first political leader to visit the US as a state guest in nine years, quickly corrected his remark at a press conference.

Agreements spanning defence, space, culture, diplomacy and research come amid rising Indo-Pacific tensions and Tokyo’s more robust role in the region.

Ahead of the dinner, US President Joe Biden announces Tokyo’s gift of 250 cherry blossom trees: ‘Like our friendship, these trees are timeless, inspiring and thriving.’

US officials acknowledge foreign anxiety over whether new partnerships under Indo-Pacific strategy will last if Trump becomes president.

The remarks from Washington’s ambassador to Tokyo came as a senior US admiral said that China’s actions in the South China Sea were an example of it trying to gain territorial space through force.

Moscow’s ‘carrot-and-stick’ tactic with Tokyo over the peace agreement goes back decades, analysts say, after a Kremlin spokesman dredged up the Cold War-era strategy in an effort to drive a wedge between the US and Japan.

Fumio Kishida says that in areas like semiconductors, AI, quantum computing and biotech, it is ‘increasingly important for the two countries to build resilience’ as the two allies work to counterbalance China.

Joined by the Philippine president, leaders will showcase ‘support and solidarity’ for common vision of South China Sea, White House official says.

US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said the move is not meant ‘for just one contingency,’ but ‘it’s built around the security in the Indo-Pacific’.

Alexander Gray, who helped to shape the previous administration’s approach to Asia, said Trump unlikely to significantly alter the trajectory of foreign policy set forth by Biden.

‘Unprecedented trilateral engagement’ for Washington, Tokyo and Manila when countries’ leaders meet next week, No 2 State Department official says.

The Arizona lost 1,177 sailors and Marines in 1941 bombing by Japan in Hawaii that launched US into World War II. The battleship’s dead account for nearly half of those killed in the attack.

Coming summit proves US strategic containment aims remain ‘rock solid’, analyst says, as another forecasts just negative reactions from China, varying only in degree.

US President Joe Biden and Donald Trump have come out against Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of US Steel.

The new partnership is expected to be agreed upon at a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden during an April 10 summit in Washington.

No official details yet on involvement of US forces, but the sighting of a Chinese unmanned aircraft near Japanese waters has raised a security spectre.