By Dingding Chen
Japan’s attempts to assemble an anti-China coalition in the region are dangerous and misguided.
In April 2014, Japan decided to end a half-century ban on the export of weapons, which the New York Times described as an attempt to “augment Japan’s regional influence by offering its technologically sophisticated defense hardware to other countries locked in territorial disputes with an increasingly assertive China.”
Indeed, last month Japan announced that it would provide patrol ships to the Philippines to enhance its capabilities against China. Then, in a speech last week in Singapore, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan would like to play a leadership role in Asian security and help countries like Vietnam who have territorial disputes with China by offering patrol ships and other military equipment. Japan’s defense minister also met with Vietnam’s defense minister in Singapore to discuss cooperation against China regarding their territorial disputes. Moreover, Japan hopes to cooperate with like-minded countries like Australia and India to curb China’s assertiveness in Asia.
These moves underscore that Japan is attempting to build an anti-China coalition against the backdrop of the relative decline of the U.S. and a rising China. Worried that it would not be able to compete militarily with China, Japan hopes to assemble an anti-China coalition by building military alliances with countries that have territorial disputes with China. While it might sound rational from Japan’s perspective, this idea of an anti-China collation is dangerous for regional peace and stability and will ultimately hurt Japan’s national interests.
Read the full story at The Diplomat
Note: The Views express by the author are his/hers alone & don’t necessarily reflect those of the “PacificSentinel” Blog.