Japan Warned of Worsening Regional, Global Security as FM Promises a Stronger Military in Visit to US Carrier

By Xu Keyue and Zhang Changyue, Global Times

Apr 24, 2022 11:14 PM

This handout picture released by the U.S. Navy on May 8, 2019 shows the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) while conducting a replenishment-at-sea with the fast combat support ship USNS Arctic (T-AOE 9), while MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters assigned to the "Nightdippers" of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 5, transfer stores between the ships. Photo:AFP

Japan is fractious in closely working with the US to strengthen their alliance's deterrence in the Asia-Pacific region, which has sparked deep concern among its neighbors as the US-Japan aggressive military cooperation would worsen the security environment in the region, analysts warned after the Japanese foreign minister inspected a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean.

Japanese media reported on Sunday that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel inspected the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday. A strike group led by the vessel held joint drills with Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force in waters near the country earlier this month.

Hayashi said Japan will continue to closely work with the US to further enhance their alliance's deterrence and response capability. He added Japan will also comprehensively strengthen its defense capability, media reported. 

There is no doubt that the military cooperation is targeted at containing China and Russia, said Da Zhigang, director and research fellow at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. Da told the Global Times on Sunday that since the Ukraine crisis, the US and Japan are trying to bind the so-called threat from China and Russia together, as they believe this could make their joint military operation more persuasive and reasonable.

But this cannot cover up the fact that Japan and the US are countries that keep deteriorating regional stability by "showing off their muscles" and trying to bring the "violent multilateral organization" NATO into the region, Liu Jiangyong, vice dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, pointed out.

"Japan is moving toward a wrong direction. The harder it works, the more dangerous it will be," the expert said.

By tying itself to the US' chariot, Japan is apparently trying to change the previous peaceful image it left to the world in the past 70 years after WWII, Liu said, citing a series of moves the country made recently, including breaking many of its taboos by offering Ukraine military equipment and imposing sanctions on Russia, boosting its national military budget and following the US to realize a "free and open Indo-Pacific" which is actually a geostrategic network against China. 

Also on Sunday, Japanese media outlet Nikkei revealed that Japan and the US will hold joint military drills in Hokkaido this fall, with the two-week exercises expected to involve more than 4,000 personnel.

Not only will US-Japan bilateral military drills increase, Japan is also likely to expand and deepen other military cooperation with the US, and its joining of the Five Eyes alliance in the future cannot be ruled out, Da predicted. 

The US hopes Japan can become its most competent tool in East Asia, but by opening the Pandora's box of military expansion in Japan it could have a very negative and dangerous impact on the future international order and landscape, Liu warned. He urged Japan to get back to the right track which really suits its national interests and regional security with calm thinking and comprehensive judgment.

In response to the threat from the aggressive alliance, China has to enhance its national defense capacity in dealing with potential regional conflicts in traditional and non-traditional security areas, Da suggested.

Amid the Ukraine crisis, many Japanese politicians including Japanese former prime minister Shinzo Abe have hyped that the crisis has "reminded many people of the fraught relationship" between the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan. Abe in an article published in the Los Angeles Times recently mentioned Taiwan and Ukraine in the same breath and said the time had come for the US to make clear that it would defend Taiwan.

In response, China's Consul General in Los Angeles Zhang Ping sent a letter to the LA Times, which was published on April 23, to state that China firmly rejects this claim.

Zhang condemned Abe who made irresponsible remarks which would instigate confrontation between major countries.

"The situations in Taiwan and Ukraine cannot be compared. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, where the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government," Zhang stressed. 

The Taiwan question concerns China's core interests of sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is entirely China's internal affair, allowing no foreign interference, Zhang said, noting that China will reserve the option of taking all necessary measures in response to the interference of foreign forces and the secessionist activities of a handful of "Taiwanese independence" separatists.