Chinese Aggressions

As U.S. goes quiet on close naval patrols, China speaks out
By Greg Torode, Philip Wen

HONG KONG/BEIJING -- While the Pentagon plays down patrols close to Chinese-controlled reefs and islands in the South China Sea, Beijing is sounding the alarm about them, seeking to justify what experts say will be an even greater presence in the disputed region.

An aerial photo taken though a glass window of a Philippine military plane shows the alleged on-going land reclamation by China on Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, Philippines, May 11, 2015. 

Chinese officials publicized the latest U.S. “freedom of navigation patrol”, protesting the deployment last week of the destroyer USS Hopper to within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal, an atoll west of the Philippines which Beijing disputes with Manila.
It was the second time in recent months that confirmation of a patrol came from Beijing, not Washington, which had previously announced or leaked details.
Bonnie Glaser, a security expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said while the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had a policy of keeping the patrols regular but low key, China was willing to publicly exploit them to further their military ends.
“It is difficult to conclude otherwise,” she said. 

“Even as it pushes ahead with these (patrols), I don’t think the Trump administration has really come to terms with what it will tolerate from China in the South China Sea, and what it simply won’t accept, and Beijing seems to grasp this.”
In official statements, Chinese foreign ministry official Lu Kang said China would take “necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty” in the resource-rich sea.
Some regional diplomats and security analysts believe that will involve increased Chinese deployments and the quicker militarization of China’s expanded facilities across the Spratlys archipelago.
While U.S. officials did not target China in their comments, couching freedom-of-navigation patrols as a “routine” assertions of international law, Beijing was quick to cast Washington as the provocateur.
The Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper on Monday accused the U.S. of upsetting recent peace and co-operation and “wantonly provoking trouble”, saying China had must now strengthen its presence in the strategic waterway.

CONSTRUCTION AND MILITARIZATION
In recent years, China has built up several reefs and islets into large-scale airstrips and bases as it seeks to assert and enforce its claims to much of the sea, through which some $3 trillion in trade passes annually. 

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei hold rival claims.
Chinese coastguard and People’s Liberation Army navy ships patrol vast swathes of the South China Sea, routinely shadowing U.S. and other international naval deployments, regional naval officers say.
Zhang Baohui, a mainland security analyst at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, told Reuters he believed Beijing was rattled by Trump’s sharpening Asia strategy and they might be tempted to react in the South China Sea, even after months of relative calm.
“We can expect the Chinese to push ahead with militarization as retaliation,” he said.
A new U.S. national defense strategy unveiled last week stressed the need to counter the rising authoritarian powers of China and Russia, outlining a need to better support allies and newer partners against coercion.
While most analysts and regional envoys believe China remains keen to avoid an actual conflict with the significantly more powerful U.S. navy in the South China Sea, it is working to close the gap.
China has added bunkers, hangars and advanced radars on its new runways in the Spratlys, although it has not fully equipped them with the advanced surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles they use to protect the Paracels grouping further north.
Similarly, Beijing has yet to land jet fighters in the Spratlys -- test flights some experts are expecting this year.

POTENTIAL FLASHPOINT
The latest patrol was at least the fifth such patrol under the Trump administration and the first to Scarborough -- one of the more contentious features in the region.
Scarborough, once a U.S. bombing range, was blockaded by the Chinese in 2012, prompting the Philippines to launch its successful legal case in the Hague against China’s excessive territorial claims.
China allowed Filipino fishermen back to Scarborough’s rich waters last year, but it remains a potential flashpoint as both sides claim sovereignty and China maintains a steady presence of ships nearby.
While experts and regional envoys expect China to ramp up operations from the Spratlys, none expect it to build on Scarborough -- something widely believed to be a red line that would provoke the United States, given its long-standing security treaty with the Philippines.
Shi Yinhong, who heads the Center for American Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University, said China had “lived with” U.S. patrols for several years but the key facts on the ground remained in China’s favor and broader tensions had “improved remarkably”.
“These islands, especially those with reclaimed land and military capability already deployed, they’re still in Chinese hands,” Shi, who has advised the Chinese government on diplomacy, told Reuters.
“I don’t think Trump has the stomach and the guts to change this fundamental status quo.”

Taiwan President Says Does Not Exclude Possibility of China Attack

Reuters

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during the end-of-year news conference in Taipei, Taiwan December 29, 2017. 

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said that she does not exclude the possibility of China attacking the self-ruled island, amid heightened tensions between the two sides including an increasing number of Chinese military drills near Taiwan.
Beijing has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province, since the election two years ago of Tsai of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.
China suspects Tsai wants to push for formal independence, a red line for Communist Party leaders in Beijing, though she has said she wants to maintain the status quo and is committed to ensuring peace.
In recent months, China has stepped up military drills around Taiwan, alarming Taipei. 

China says the exercises are routine, but that it will not tolerate any attempt by the island to declare independence.
"No one can exclude this possibility. We will need to see whether their policymakers are reasonable policymakers or not," Tsai said in an interview on Taiwan television broadcast late on Monday, when asked whether China could attack Taiwan.
"When you consider it (Taiwan-China relationship) from a regional perspective, any reasonable policymaker will have to very carefully deliberate as to whether launching war is an option," Tsai said.
"When our government faces resistance and pressure from China, we will find our method to resist this. This is very important," she added.
"In terms of China circulating around Taiwan or carrying out other military activities, our military is carefully following every action and movement in the scope of its monitoring," Tsai said. 

"Our military is very confident to face these situations."
China considers proudly democratic Taiwan to be its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Chinese control.
Taiwan and China have also traded accusations this month about China's opening of new civilian aviation routes close to Taiwan-controlled islands in the Taiwan Strait.
Although China has cut off a formal dialogue mechanism with Taiwan, Tsai acknowledged that both sides currently have a method for communications to avoid misunderstanding.
Taiwan has been pressing for the United States, its main source of arms, to provide more advanced equipment, but has also been trying to bolster its own weapons programs, to avoid what Tsai termed "certain political difficulties" that come with buying weapons overseas in the teeth of Chinese opposition.
Tsai said she believed one day Taiwan would be able to produce its own submarines, an item Taipei has long pressed for to face China's navy.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tsai's remarks.

Chinese Aggressions

Japan Sees Red Over China’s Submarine Deployment
By Timothy Saviola, Nathan Swire 

On Jan. 11, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced that two vessels, a Chinese 4,000-ton Jiangkai-II class frigate and a submarine of unknown origins, were sighted near the territorial waters surrounding Japan's Senkaku Islands. 

The Japanese government later identified the submarine as a Shang-class nuclear attack submarine, after it raised the Chinese flag in international waters. 

This is the first time China has deployed a submarine to the area. 

Specifically, the submarine was sighted in the contiguous zone of the islands—the area between 12 and 24 nautical miles from shore.
Japan formally protested China’s actions, with Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera calling it an “act that unilaterally raises tensions.” 

Japanese officials also reiterated that they are committed to improving relations with China, despite what they consider China’s actions hampering the relationship. 

Japan’s actions included directly summoning the Chinese ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, to discuss the issue.
In turn, Chinese officials claimed they had the right to enter the waters around the islands because the islands fall under Chinese ownership. 

A pro-China paid editorial in the Washington Post the day after the incident also cited that China had been safeguarding its territorial sovereignty.

The islands were uninhabited and unowned prior to 1895, when Japan annexed them into its territory. 

Japan has maintained administrative control of the islands since the end of the Sino-Japanese war later that year.
The appearance of the Chinese frigate and submarine follows the incursion of four Chinese Coast Guard vessels into the waters surrounding the islands. 

Since Japan chose to nationalize the islands in 2012, China has increased “routine” patrols of maritime law enforcement ships, as well as scrambling military flights to the surrounding seas. 

It was not until June 2016, however, that China first deployed a naval vessel to the Senkauku Island’s contiguous zone, in that case a Jiankai-I class frigate. 

 A deployment of a fleet of fishing and coastguard vessels to the region followed soon after. 

The deployment of a Chinese submarine represents a further escalation from these previous patrols. China’s decision to send a submarine to the area around the islands could therefore represent the same kind of “salami slicing” it has been using in the South China Sea to assert its authority, gradually ramping up its level of interference without taking any steps so far beyond precedent that they would force a response.
China’s actions take place against the backdrop of the two country’s agreement last month to create a new crisis-management hotline to de-escalate conflicts in the region. 

However, Japan made clear during the negotiations that the hotline would apply only to issues outside its territorial waters, so the Senkaku Islands themselves are excluded. 

Previous efforts to create this hotline had been frozen after Japan nationalized the islands, and because Japan has continued to insist that the hotline not apply to the islands.
Beyond its maritime movements, China has continued to accelerate its naval development to bolster its power in the South China Sea. 

The country has launched a new underwater surveillance network to aid its submarines in navigation and targeting. 

The project was led by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, but has recently been handed over to the Navy for military use. 

The network covers the South China Sea, as well as the western Pacific and Indian oceans. 

The program may undercut the United States’ “asymmetric advantage” in submarine operations due to its expertise in ocean surveillance.
China also recently began construction of its third aircraft carrier, according to sources close to China’s People’s Liberation Army. 

When completed, the carrier will provide China with increased power projection due to its catapult launch system and larger size than existing carriers. 

Sea trials for China’s second aircraft carrier are expected to begin in February as part of its qualification process, but the carrier is not likely to enter service before the end of 2018.

In Other News…
United States

The United States continued its freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) in the South China Sea this week. 

In remarks on Jan. 20, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang announced that the USS Hopper, a U.S. missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Scarborough Shoal on Jan. 17. 

Lu said “China is strongly dissatisfied with [the incident] and will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty.” 

The disputed reef is claimed by China and the Philippines. 

Philippines Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. commented that the Philippines did “not wish to be part of a U.S.-China intramural,” and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana downplayed the FONOP as not a concern.
U.S. officials confirmed the patrol, and noted that it was conducted under the regime of “innocent passage” under which warships have the legal right to quickly pass through a country’s 12 nautical mile territorial sea even without the coastal country’s permission. 

The last U.S. Navy FONOP, near the Paracel Islands, was revealed last October.

Japan-Australia
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visited Japan this week, and met his counterpart Shinzo Abe to discuss a visiting forces agreement. 

The proposed deal would make it easier to conduct joint military exercises by providing a more certain legal framework for hosting military personnel and equipment. 

Japan has a similar agreement in place with the United States. 

The two prime ministers agreed to accelerate the negotiations and complete the agreement "as early as feasible.”
Any defense agreement or increased cooperation is predicted to inflame tensions with China, which is likely to view such action as a provocation aimed at countering its rising influence. 

Japan and Australia have concluded similar agreements in previous years as the countries’ security strategies have converged around friction in the South China Sea and Korean peninsula.

Vietnam
Vietnam has invited India to increase its investment in the oil and gas sector in the South China Sea. India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has been active since 1988 in developing wells in Vietnam’s maritime claims. 

Vietnam’s exploration activities often cause diplomatic difficulties because of the region’s overlapping claims. 

 In his Jan. 11 press conference, Lu stated his country’s opposition to the comments and use of bilateral relations as Vietnam’s excuse “to infringe upon China's legitimate rights and interests in the South China Sea and impair regional peace and stability.”
Vietnam’s building program in the South China Sea has also continued throughout 2017 as one counterweight to China’s land reclamation program. 

Vietnam has also recently held defense talks with its former colonial power France. 

France sees Vietnam as an important partner in the region due to the countries’ historical ties, and Vietnam believes engagement with France can provide it with more influence on the U.N. Security Council powers.

Analysis and Commentary: Year in Review
Recent commentary has emphasized the relative lack of engagement from Washington on the South China Sea throughout 2017. 

Writing in the Asia Times, Xuan Loc Doan reviews the Trump administration’s light-touch foreign policy approach to the South China Sea, and how U.S. opposition to China’s building projects has taken a back seat to other issues. 

The Post’s Emily Rauhala writes that though “Trump has given no clear signs that he plans to make the South China Sea a priority in 2018,” potential Chinese actions may bring the dispute back to the foreground. 

Looking ahead, Steven Stashwick in The Diplomat highlights several U.S.-China military trends to watch in 2018, including development of hypersonic weapons, focus on submarine capabilities, and new strategies for littoral combat operations.
China’s posture has also changed in the last year. 

Tom Mitchell and John Reed in the Financial Times chronicle Xi’s effort to seize the “strategic opportunity” created by the U.S. pullback. 

China has focused on reinforcing existing land reclamation in the South China Sea rather than in developing new reefs, and has expanded investment projects in countries like the Philippines to diffuse tensions over the maritime conflict.
In a recent “Centner for Strategic and International Studies” podcast, Zack Cooper and Bonnie Glaser spoke with Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative Director Gregory Poling on the outlook for the South China Sea in 2018, including China’s strategic goals for the region and how the United States could increase its engagement in the region.

China's State Hooliganism

Sweden summons Chinese ambassador over kidnapping of Gui Minhai

The situation has worsened since the bookseller was taken by police while travelling on a train to Beijing
By Tom Phillips in Beijing

Sweden has summoned China’s ambassador to Stockholm to explain the dramatic snatching of a Swedish bookseller as he travelled to Beijing with two European diplomats.
Gui Minhai, 53, was taken on Saturday by about 10 plainclothes officers as his train stopped at a station outside the Chinese capital.

His current whereabouts is unknown.
It is the second time in just over two years that Gui, a Hong Kong publisher who had specialised in melodramatic tomes about China’s political elite, has been seized by Chinese agents. 

In October 2015 Gui vanished from his Thai holiday home, later resurfacing in detention in China where he made what supporters denounced as a forced televised confession. 

Gui had seemed on the verge of release last autumn but this week’s dramatic development has shattered those hopes.

Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai snatched by Chinese agents from train.

Margot Wallström, Sweden’s foreign minister, told reporters her government had “detailed knowledge” of Saturday’s events and was “working round the clock” on the issue. 

“The situation has now worsened since Saturday morning,” she admitted.
Criticism of China’s actions -- and Stockholm’s so far timid public response to Gui’s ordeal -- intensified after reports of his latest detention. 

“This was precisely what wasn’t supposed to happen,” the bookseller’s daughter, Angela Gui, told the Guardian.
“I think it is quite clear that he has been abducted again and that he’s being held somewhere at a secret location,” she added in an interview with Radio Sweden.
In an editorial entitled ‘Is there anything China won’t get away with?’ Sweden’s Borås Tidning newspaper said it was time to stand up to a bullying Beijing: “The scariest part of the news about the Swedish publisher isn’t so much that Chinese authorities have caught him again but the arrogance the manner of his arrest demonstrates to the rest of the world.”
It warned: “This is a new China that we see; a China which, with its ever-growing tentacles, wants to build a huge port in Lysekil … which builds nuclear power plants in the UK, which wants to build an Arctic highway from Norway to Moscow … a China that is not afraid of the diplomatic repercussions that may arise from grabbing a Swedish book publisher in front of the employees of Margot Wallström.”
Diplomats and observers say that under Xi Jinping, who was recently crowned China’s most dominant ruler since Mao Zedong, Beijing has become increasingly deaf to foreign criticism and inclined to throw its weight around, wagering cash-hungry governments will not challenge its actions.
“There is really a new, harsher tone in their approach. It wasn’t like this a few years ago,” said one western diplomat who declined to be named because of the political sensitivities involved.
“I think they’ve become over confident and are overplaying their hand,” the diplomat added. 

“And there is an increasing push-back from all over the world.”
Jojje Olsson, a Swedish writer who has written a book about Gui’s saga, said Saturday’s “kidnapping” underlined how Beijing cared more about silencing dissent than its international image: “It shows the Chinese government cares less and less about criticism from the outside -- they would rather set an example that you cannot get away when you criticise the government, than listen to foreign governments or foreign media.”
Olsson contrasted Stockholm’s handling of Gui’s case with its efforts to free two Swedish journalists who were imprisoned in Ethiopia in 2011. 

“Back then, the Swedish government was very quick to get involved ... the foreign minister travelled to Ethiopia twice ... [But] in the case of Gui Minhai obviously it has been very muted.” 

Sweden’s foreign minister had not once spoken to Angela Gui, Olsson claimed.
“They say they are working ... "behind the scenes" but they are being very careful in putting official pressure on China. That is, of course, how China would like it.”

Kushner: The Enemy Within

KUSHNER WAS CHINA’S COMPLIANT ‘LUCKY CHARM’ 
BY JESSICA KWONG

Jared Kushner, whom Donald Trump entrusted as his chief diplomatic contact with China despite having no prior government experience, met with a Chinese ambassador alone on at least one occasion, raising security concerns among counterintelligence officials.
The president’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser met Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, during the Trump campaign and reunited with him several times during Trump’s transition and even more often in the months after Trump took office, The New Yorker reported earlier this week.
White House Senior adviser Jared Kushner attends bilateral meetings held by Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on November 9, 2017 in Beijing, China.

“Jared became Mr. China,” Michael Pillsbury, a former Pentagon aide on Trump’s transition team, told the magazine.
Kushner was China’s “lucky charm,” a former National Security Council member said. 

“It was a dream come true. They couldn’t believe he was so compliant.”
Cui, who during previous administrations was received at the White House with a group of China experts and note-takers, often got to meet with Kushner without the U.S. government’s top China specialists.
Some officials, who were not invited nor briefed on the meetings with Cui, were left to comb through American intelligence documents in order to get a sense of how Chinese diplomats described interactions with Kushner. 

That is unusual because officials typically sit in on meetings with representatives of foreign countries for national security purposes.
“There’s nobody else there in the room to verify what was said and what wasn’t, so the Chinese can go back and claim anything,” a former senior U.S. official briefed on the meetings told The New Yorker. 

“I’m sorry, Jared—do you think your background is going to allow you to be able to outsmart the Chinese Ambassador?”

A spokesman for Kushner said that China specialists did not tell him that “he shouldn’t be doing it the way he was doing it at the time.”
Within the intelligence community, China‘s influence operations are of equal concern as those of Russia.
Counterintelligence officials warned Kushner last year that his wife Ivanka Trump’s best friend, Wendi Deng Murdoch, could be using her friendship with them to benefit the Chinese government, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Kushner’s portfolio—which when he moved into the West Wing early last year also included rewriting the U.S.’s trade agreements and forging peace in the Middle East—has been reduced, and he no longer meets with Cui frequently.

Sina Delenda Est

China's Push Into Western Pacific Alarms U.S. Allies in Asia 
By Ting Shi and Isabel Reynolds

With the Trump administration warning of a possible war with North Korea, U.S. allies in Asia are sounding the alarm on another risk: a clash with China in the western Pacific.
China has recently accelerated air and naval excursions in sensitive areas near Japan and Taiwan, part of a longstanding quest to expand its military presence further from its shores into the Pacific Ocean. Leaders in Tokyo and Taipei have called on Beijing to back off while strengthening their defenses.
Earlier this month, Japan observed for the first time a Chinese submarine entering the contiguous zone (12 nautical miles to 24 nautical miles from shore) around Japanese islets in the East China Sea. That came shortly after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen warned that China’s increased military patrols around the island threatened to destabilize the region.

Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy has raised concern in Asia about the reliability of the U.S. in helping to stave off Chinese pressure as it gains greater military and economic strength. 

China has a long-term goal of reuniting with Taiwan, and territorial disputes with countries ranging from Japan to Vietnam to India.
“The unpredictability of the Trump administration encourages Tokyo and Taipei to do more for their own defense,” said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor with the National University of Singapore who specializes in Asia-Pacific relations. 

While Trump’s interactions with Xi Jinping mostly focused on North Korea and trade during his first year in office, China’s territorial claims may become more prominent going forward. 

In a strategy document released last week, the U.S. Defense Department cited China’s military modernization and expansion in the South China Sea as key threats to U.S. power.
China has pushed back against that narrative, with its defense ministry over the weekend calling on the U.S. to abandon a “Cold War” mindset. 

It blamed “other countries” for citing freedom of navigation concerns to undertake military activities in the South China Sea, where China has undertaken massive land reclamation to strengthen its claim to more than 80 percent of the area.
On Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said the country will take “necessary measures” to safeguard its sovereignty in the South China Sea after a U.S. warship entered waters near the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

‘New Normal’
The Communist Party’s official People’s Daily on Monday accused the U.S. of destroying stability in the South China Sea, and threatened to “enhance and speed up” its military capacity in the waters in response.
China has also dismissed allegations that it is encroaching on Taiwan and Japan. 

Patrols around Taiwan by Chinese fighter jets, bombers and surveillance aircraft are the “new normal,” Chinese Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke said last month. 

The Chinese submarine spotted near disputed islands in the East China Sea was monitoring the movements of two Japanese vessels, the foreign ministry said.
China’s navy began sailing through the “First Island Chain” -- including Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines -- in 2009. 

The Air Force followed suit with regular patrols in 2015, and the frequency of flights has increased from “four times per year” then to “several times per month” in 2017, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

‘Cabbage Strategy’
Last year, Tsai said she would increase Taiwan’s defense spending by at least 2 percent each year. Priorities include new missiles, fighter aircraft and ballistic missile defenses. 

The U.S. continues to sell weapons to Taiwan and is obligated to defend the island under a 1979 law.
Japan’s cabinet last month approved a record defense budget of about 5.19 trillion yen ($47 billion), the sixth straight annual rise in defense spending under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

While its missile defense purchases are primarily to deter North Korea, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said this month they could be used to stop other weapons.
Abe hosted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week at a military base, part of efforts to strengthen a burgeoning four-way security arrangement that also includes the U.S. and India. 

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review published on Saturday, Abe said the “Quad” grouping wasn’t aimed at containing China even as he warned of instability in the region’s waterways.

‘Not Working’
“There is an attempt to alter the present status in the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” Abe told the publication. 

“So I think the security situation is becoming tougher these days.”
China is employing a “cabbage strategy” in which it gradually surrounds a disputed area with multiple layers of security, according to June Teufel Dreyer, a University of Miami political science professor and author of “Middle Kingdom and Empire of the Rising Sun” -- a 2016 book on China-Japan ties.
“To the extent Taiwan and Japan can be said to have a strategy, it is to raise their deterrence capabilities to a level that keeps the situation stable,” Dreyer said. 

“It’s not working.”

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

China WTO membership was a terrible mistake 
By Shawn Donnan in Washington

Robert Lighthizer: "The global trading system is threatened by major economies who do not intend to open their markets to trade and participate fairly".

The Trump administration has said that allowing China to join the World Trade Organization was a mistake and accused Beijing of moving further away from becoming a market economy.
 The statement in a report by the office of Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, is a sign of rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. 
 It is also a reversal of more than two decades of policy in Washington towards China’s 2001 accession to the WTO.
Both Democratic and Republican policymakers have long argued that China’s membership of the organisation has been a way to bring Beijing into the global fold and avoid potential trade wars.
 Mr Lighthizer said China, together with Russia, was undermining the WTO, which had always been envisioned as a club for market economies eager to trade with others. 
 “The global trading system is threatened by major economies who do not intend to open their markets to trade and participate fairly,” he said, calling China’s actions “contrary to the fundamental principles of the WTO”. 
 His office’s first annual report to Congress on China’s behaviour as a WTO member described US backing for the Asian power’s accession as a mistake because of the terms that were agreed to and how Beijing had repeatedly failed to live up to promises to previous administrations.
 “Given these facts, it seems clear that the United States erred in supporting China’s entry into the WTO on terms that have proven to be ineffective in securing China’s embrace of an open, market-oriented trade regime,” the report said. 
 Mr Lighthizer vowed to use new unilateral tools outside the WTO to try to force a change in Beijing’s behaviour.
That foreshadows moves in the weeks to come that some analysts say could set up tit-for-tat trade actions by Beijing and Washington that could devolve into a big trade war. 
 A senior administration official said on Friday that while the US was prepared to continue using the WTO to fight its battles with China, it was also increasingly convinced that many of those actions were futile and that Washington was better served acting unilaterally in certain cases. 
 President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a number of actions aimed at China with much of the focus on an investigation launched last year into Beijing’s practice of forcing foreign firms to hand over important technologies in order to do business.  
Mr Trump has said he will discuss his trade plans and how to deal with China in his State of the Union address at the end of this month.
 A senior White House official said addressing “systemic” issues in China such as its industrial policy and intellectual property regime that were hurting the US economy was set to be one of the main themes of the administration’s work this year.
 The Trump administration, the White House official said, was also eager to force reform at a WTO that it sees as dysfunctional.  
 Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the move to call US backing for China’s WTO accession a mistake amounted to an “extraordinary statement” that was “at odds with the convictions of senior US officials of both parties over at least two decades”.