A White House effort to counter China’s increasing influence in the western Pacific on Tuesday became the first casualty of Republican attempts to make honoring the U.S. debt contingent on cutting medical and food benefits for welfare recipients.
President Joe Biden’s aides for weeks had been touting his planned visit to Papua New Guinea as part of the administration’s outreach to Southeast Asian and Pacific island nations that are also being wooed by China. Now the first-ever presidential visit there and a meeting with Prime Minister James Marape and other leaders of Pacific Islands Forum countries have been canceled to let Biden return to Washington immediately after the conclusion of the G-7 summit of the world’s largest democratic economies in Japan on Sunday.
