Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to South Korea, Japan and France from Saturday to Thursday. Many foreign media analyses suggest that the visit aims to solidify President Joe Biden's political legacy in terms of the US' "Indo-Pacific Strategy" and strengthen relations with Asian allies such as South Korea and Japan. 

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is also visiting India from Sunday to Monday. However, the Biden administration's dispatch of high-level officials to the Asia-Pacific region as it nears the end of its term reveals a lack of confidence in the endurance of its diplomatic legacy, highlighting the instability and uncertainty within the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral relationship. 

"To sum up the US-Japan-South Korea alliance in a phrase, I would say they're 'strange bedfellows.' They seem to be sleeping in the same bed, but each has a different agenda," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

The US-Japan-South Korea trilateral relationship is a key part of the Biden administration's Indo-Pacific alliance system, which serves the purpose of countering China. Over the past four years, Biden has attempted to consolidate US leadership and hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region through this pseudo-multilateral approach, leading to instability in the region.

Seoul, the first stop on Blinken's Asia trip, is currently undergoing an escalating political crisis. According to AFP on Sunday, Blinken opened a visit to "crisis-riven South Korea" where he would delicately encourage continuity with the policies of the impeached president Yoon Suk-yeol. 

Given that much of the US-South Korea alliance is based on Yoon's pro-US stance, the ongoing political turmoil in South Korea casts doubt on the future of US-South Korea relations. Additionally, due to historical issues and territorial disputes between South Korea and Japan, the improved relations between the two under US mediation could also be affected by changes in US-South Korea relations and domestic political turmoil in South Korea.

Furthermore, the recent warming of China-Japan relations has caused some anxiety in the US, Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. 

The rhetoric of the US valuing its allies seems even more hypocritical in light of its recent rejection of Japan's Nippon Steel's purchase of US Steel. On January 3, Biden formally rejected the deal, citing "national security concerns," which sparked public outcry in Japan. Japan's Sankei Shimbun on Sunday directly asked, "What does 'ally' mean to the US?"

"To the US, allies are merely there to be exploited," Da told Global Times. "This political decision by the US government deviates from its self-proclaimed principle of a free and open economy, leaving US allies' businesses disappointed and sowing discordant elements in Japan-US relations."  

Undoubtedly, the US-led alliance is fundamentally built to serve its own global dominance and specific interests. "This so-called alliance has never been about equal relationship but obedience and subordination," said Li.