Expert: Tomomi Inada's "In-depth Interference Theory" Reveals Japan's Anxiety
- Source
- China Military Online
- Editor
- Zhang Tao
- Time
- 2016-09-21
BEIJING, Sept. 21 (ChinaMil) -- According to media reports, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada recently announced during her visit to the US that Japan would interfere in the South China Sea issue more deeply, including helping countries along the seacoast to improve their military capability.
American media also reported that the Japanese and American defense ministers held a meeting and announced to carry out Japan-US joint patrol in the South China Sea.
But this couldn't be found on the website of US Department of Defense (DOD), and Tomomi Inada was very evasive at the press conference after the meeting without giving a direct response.
Whether the two countries had put "joint escort" on the agenda or not, Tomomi Inada's remarks sent a strong signal that Japan would "interfere in the South China Sea deeply".
As a country out of the South China Sea region, Japan has meddled in regional affairs for a long time although seldom through direct military interference, but mainly contended with China through other countries.
Japan has never stopped trying to internationalize the South China Sea issue, not only trying to force the South China Sea disputes into the agenda of several diplomatic events including the G7 and East Asia Summit in the name of "defending the freedom of navigation", but also supporting the Philippines in submitting the South China Sea arbitration.
Japan also lifted the restriction on weapon export through the "three principles on the transfer of defense equipment", vowed at the Shangri-La Dialogue to "assist" countries in the South China Sea in enhancing their maritime military capability, and agreed to help Vietnam to launch the earth observation satellite in order to improve its reconnaissance capability in the South China Sea.
Moreover, Japan also provided economic assistance to ASEAN countries through ODA and other programs, in hopes that they would make trouble for China on the South China Sea issue.
Japan's actions once took obvious effects, and the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines in particular drove the South China Sea disputes to a new climax.
After the G20 summit, there were positive signs in the China-Japan relations and the South China Sea situation has cooled down, but the recent remarks by Tomomi Inada will undermine the positive trend in bilateral relations and may trigger chain effects.
Actually we can find the reason for Japans "anxiety" in recent subtle changes in the international situation. The Philippines' new president Rodrigo Duterte took diplomatic moves against the wish of the US and Japan, and China and Vietnam signed an agreement to cool down the South China Sea disputes.
In fact, Japan's abandonment of its usual ambiguity and the shift from an assistant role to proactively calling for "joint patrol of the South China Sea" with the US reflected its "ambition to become a big political and military power in the world". Japan has amended the constitution, signed the new Guidelines for Japan-U.S Defense Cooperation and passed the new security bills in recent years, through which it lifted the restrictions on the self-defense forces step by step.
As a result, the JSDF has evolved from a quasi-military to a military in the real sense and is allowed to interfere in the affairs of other countries and regions.
These actions seriously challenged the international order and indicated a fierce attack of the post-WWII international system by Japanese militarism.
Japan's high-profile interference in the South China Sea, in the short term, is intended to divert attention from its conflicts with China in the East China Sea and create a kind of interaction between the two areas, so as to instigate certain countries in the South China Sea to content with China collectively and therefore mitigate Japan's pressure in the East China Sea.
On the appearance, Japan was following America's "Asia Pacific Rebalancing Strategy" and borrowing its power to put up a tough stance, while secretly it was advancing the "Southward Advance" strategy, which was a continuation of its "Fundamental Principles of National Policy" issued in 1936.
In the long term, Japan's "big country complex" and militarism are intertwined to form the "foundation" for its diplomatic policies, which determine the "upper structure" made of Japan's extreme rightist actions. Therefore, there is no hope for the normalization of China-Japan relations as long as the militarist ideas exist in the country, not to mention Japan abandoning the plot to "set fire" everywhere.
Some analysts said that Tomomi Inada, as the right-hand person for Shinzo Abe, very likely will become his successor, so Japan's provocations may be lasting and more aggressive.
As Cheng Yonghua, the Chinese ambassador to Japan, said, if the JSDF participated in the "freedom of navigation" operation initiated by the US in the South China Sea, it would have crossed the line and China would never tolerate it. If Japan insists on its "interference" and harms China's sovereign interests, it will have to take the consequences, which is shooting itself in the foot.
By Ma Jianguang, Research Center for International Studies, PLA National University of Defense Technology
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