Japan feels diplomatic squeeze as US-China tensions rise

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In a joint statement on 17 March, Japanese and US defence chiefs said they had agreed to closely cooperate in the event of a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

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“It’s an unusual move for Japan to join with the US to single out China as a common threat in their ‘two-plus-two’ dialogues,” said Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canada-based Kanwa Defence Review.

The Kyodo news agency reported that Tokyo had been reviewing the feasibility of issuing a Self-Defence Force dispatch order to protect US military ships and planes in the event of a crisis between mainland China and Taiwan, given the strait’s geographical proximity and the possibility that an armed conflict there would affect the safety of Japanese citizens.

Cheung Mong, an associate professor with the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University in Japan, said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga would not let the SDF directly engage in any battles against the PLA. “The most contribution made by the SDF may be providing rear-area logistic support for their US counterpart under the commitment of the two countries’ guidelines for defence cooperation revised in 1997,” he said.

Japanese perceptions of China suffered a hit because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 before becoming a global crisis that forced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics as well as a relationship-mending trip to Japan by President Xi Jinping.

As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have been busy restoring legacy alliances in the region, Shanghai-based maritime power expert Ni Lexiong said the trend would further undermine China’s influence, but give Japan more development opportunities. “The problem is many Chinese still see the Diaoyu Islands dispute as a symbol of national humiliation from the First Sino-Japanese War [1894-95], but the Japanese believe it is a current national security affair and there is no dispute since the Japanese government bought ownership of the uninhabited archipelago from the Kurihara family in 2012 to nationalise it,” Cheung said.

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