By Aurelia George Mulgan
Not surprisingly, the Chinese press has been critical of the outcomes of the Japanese PM’s visit.
Chinese commentary on the summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama has predictably focused on the singular achievement of Abe’s US visit – the unveiling of the revised “Guidelines for US-Japan Defense Cooperation” – as well as Abe’s “historical revisionism,” and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In highlighting these themes, the commentary has emphasized the degree to which U.S. and Japanese interests complement each other, particularly on trade and security policy.
The Chinese press has remarked on how Japanese and U.S. strategic ambitions coincide in the new defense guidelines. In their view, Abe wants to free Japan’s military from its postwar shackles and strengthen U.S. commitments to Japanese security by making a greater contribution to the U.S.-Japan alliance, at the same time as reinforcing the bilateral security relationship as a bulwark against the rise of Chinese power in the Asia Pacific. The United States, on the other hand, wants to retain its regional dominance but at a lower cost and so is pleased to see Japan free itself from restrictions on the dispatch of its military overseas.
Chinese commentators cite various Japanese sources that remark on how the new guidelines are all about the U.S. shifting more of the security load on to Japan in the region. In their view, this is designed to fill the gap in America’s “declining power,” a notion often repeated in Chinese analysis of the U.S.-China power balance.
Read the full story at The Diplomat