Political storms brewing in the Far East: The escalating row between China and Japan, and the nuclear brinksmanship by North Korea are making the Far East more of a powder-keg than the Middle East!
In what resembles the dangerous spectacle of kids playing with dynamite, China and Japan have resumed their Asian row over historical matters that, nevertheless, have explosive global consequences.
The row was reignited yesterday because Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi felt slighted by the brazen (and patently provocative) homage Japanese officials paid to their World War II shrine during her goodwill visit to Japan.
(At least she wasn’t heckled and jostled like Laura Bush was on her goodwill visit to the Middle East around the same time.)
But it would help to appreciate that – for the Chinese – Japanese tributes to this shrine under these circumstances is rather like the German politicians paying homage to a Nazi war memorial during a visit by the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel.
The offending gesture: Japanese politicians following a Shinto Priest into the Yasukuni Shrine to honour ALL of their World War II dead!
Moreover, since recent spats make it clear that the Chinese are still nursing open wounds from the atrocities Japanese soldiers committed against their compatriots during this war, it seems undiplomatic at best for Japanese officials to subject any Chinese official to such jingoistic military tributes.
Nevertheless, all of these skirmishes are merely the under card to the looming main event between these Asia titans over which one will win the highly coveted permanent seat on the UN Security Council. And, both China and Japan seem to think that establishing undisputed preeminence in the region is an initiation requirement before either one of them can join the fraternity of nations that comprise the Council.
Note: Beyond coveting a seat on the Council, China and Japan are also engaged in a bilateral chess game of military deterrence. And since China possesses nuclear weapons, Japan may just be fueling their skirmishes to such heated levels that it becomes palatable to argue (under the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) principle) that going nuclear is necessary to deter Chinese aggression. Indeed, they can point to the decades of skirmishes between India and Pakistan that have been kept in check by this very principle.
Besides, it’s only a matter of time before America (Japan’s military benefactor) concedes that a nuclear Japan is in its strategic interest to help triangulate the inexorable growth of China’s military might….
News and Politics
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.