By Justin Chock
Japan’s recent rhetoric on China has elicited only a muted reaction – but perhaps China wants it that way.
Recent Japanese reports depict China in an unusually threatening light: Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) rigorously analyzed Chinese assertive actions in the 2015 Annual White Paper after earlier rejections by Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party for being “too soft on China.” Japan then released an East China Sea (ECS) Unilateral Development Report and even a MOD South China Sea (SCS) Report highlighting [PDF] the threat of China’s assertive unilateral actions.
But as The Diplomat’s Ankit Panda has noted, the Chinese ECS structures are not much of a threat, and the SCS report focuses 15 of 16 pages on China’s destabilizing effects without providing new facts or data (even the red-letter “danger” highlights are reserved for Chinese actions). Instead, these reports seem to be more demonstrative than alarming, which begs the question of why Japan would depict China in this manner as the bilateral relationship begins to turn for the better?
The rhetoric creates a much needed boost in public support for the set of bills currently in the Japanese Diet, which formalize collective self-defense and Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) deployment overseas. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to follow through on collective self-defense after his Cabinet changed the constitutional interpretation in July 2014 and after assuring the U.S. government that the bills would pass. These measures, however, come at a huge political cost – just 26 percent of Japanese approve of the legislation, with 56 percent opposed – with Abe’s approval rating falling to its lowest level since his second term in office. Thus the reports attempt to regain public approval by warning of future Chinese assertiveness, which increased JSDF capabilities will help to prevent.
Read the full story at The Diplomat