by Qu Junya
BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Whether Japan is truly seeking regional peace and security or just fishing in the troubled waters by increasing military presence in the South China Sea is not a hard question to answer.
Japan will expand its presence in the South China Sea by conducting "joint training cruises with the U.S. Navy and bilateral and multilateral exercises with regional navies", its Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said in a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
This is to support the U.S. freedom-of-navigation operations for maintaining international maritime order, she said ahead of her first meeting with Pentagon chief Ash Carter.
As keeping maritime order in the South China Sea is a shared duty of the region's coastal states, the huge interest an outsider like Japan has shown in following in the footsteps of the United States can hardly be justified.
Japan is in dispute with China over the Diaoyu Island in the East China Sea. That is where its true and major purpose lies, as revealed in the very same speech Inada made. Japan is meanwhile seeking a "candid discussion" with Beijing, said the newly appointed defense chief of Japan.
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