A Chinese marine surveillance ship Haijian (center) cruises next to Japanese coast guard ships in the East China Sea, near islands known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China. Radio Free Europe
Shaeli Das, Policy Forum: Why is China escalating tensions in the East China Sea?
Economics, power, or a bit of both?
The dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands has been rumbling along since the early 1970s, so why the sudden ramping up of tensions? Shaheli Das looks at the history of the dispute and what might be driving current developments.
The presence last month of 230 Chinese fishing vessels and the recurrent intrusions by Chinese ships in the “contiguous waters” near the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea have sparked new tensions in the region.
The row between China and Japan and the maritime territorial dispute in this body of water has escalated to a point where it is now one of the major combustible flashpoints in East Asia. Although Chinese naval activism, through incursions of jet fighters and coast guard vessels in the contiguous sea and airspace, has been a regular feature of the dispute for many years, such intrusions have dramatically increased of late.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Reasons for this increase in tensions .... (1) a Chinese economic slowdown and a government that wants to divert the public's attention away from it, (2) the decline of the U.S. .... Barack Obama’s ‘Asian pivot’ failed. China is in the ascendancy (Simon Tisdall, The Guardian), (3) an assertive Japan,, and (4) a long history of rivalry between China and Japan that goes back a long time .... Japan and China’s maritime tensions in the South China Sea are resurfacing World War II-era wounds (Steve Mollman, Quartz)
Update: How to Spark a War in Asia (Ted Galen Carpenter, National Interest).
3 comments:
I wonder how brave China would be if Japan were nuclear armed? I suspect they'd be far less brave.
The United States is unlikely to defend a country thousands of miles especially when doing so places America's survival at stake. The United States is not going to "go nuclear" in this situation. To do so would lead to an in kind retaliation. All parties likely know this.
A nuclear armed Japan and a nuclear armed South Korea would be an enormous check on both China and North Korea. While the US is not going to risk such a thing in defense of nations thousands of miles away, Japan and South Korea WILL do this to defend their nations and it will take pressure off of the US military and probably improve relations with us and Japan and South Korea.
A win/win all the way around. We get to properly deploy our forces, improve relations with very important countries like Japan and South Korea, and a check is placed on China. The sooner Japan and South Korea are nuclear armed the better. If we can help we should. Most likely the best America can do is GET OUT OF THEIR WAY!!
America is committed to the defence of japan, it is in her national intrests and china will not use a nuke knowing it will tewuire a inkind response
The reason, 7.4 billion people on the planet, number of mentally ill 7.4 including myself.
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