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‘‘Peace through Strength®’’
• Beijing claims waters and islands 500 miles from the Chinese mainland. Its justification: a map created by Chinese cartographers in 1947. Based on that map, Beijing has fired on fishing boats in Philippine waters and earmarked $1.6 billion to build ports and airfields on islands long claimed by Manila. In fact, The Washington Times reports that China has eight military bases on reefs claimed by the Philippines. • Chinese ships have rammed Vietnamese ships and violated Vietnamese territorial waters. Effect In short, it’s easy to understand why Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warns, “The South China Sea seems set to become a ‘Lake Bei jing.’” That brings us to the region’s response. Let’s begin with something that’s obvious to everyone except China’s political leaders: As a nation bordering the Pacific Ocean and with ter ritories in the Pacific, the United States is a Pacific power—not an out sider. So it is altogether appropriate for the United States to be en gaged in this region. United States As evidenced by the so-called “Pacific pivot,” Washington is expanding its level of engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. For instance, the U.S. is upgrading military facilities on Guam; has new basing agreements in place or in the works with Australia and the Philippines; has forged a new security partnership with India; and is expanding its missile defense-assets in the region. The U.S. will soon deploy an additional missile-defense X-Band radar in southern Japan to augment one already based in northern Japan, and Washington is looking to base a third X-Band radar in the Pacific region even further south, The Wall Street Journal reports, adding that the Navy plans to deploy 60 percent of its entire missile-defense fleet in the Pacific. Japan Declaring that “We must not allow the international commons, in particular the oceans, to become places ruled by might,” Abe recently warned, “China seeks to establish its jurisdiction in the waters surrounding [disputed] islands as a fait accompli.’” To his credit, Abe has proposed a way to prevent that unhappy outcome: “a strategy whereby Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. state of Hawaii form a diamond to safeguard the maritime commons stretching from the Indian Ocean region to the western Pacific.” Abe is eager “to invest, to the greatest possible extent, Japan’s capabilities in this security diamond” and is backing up his words with actions. Condemning “continuous provocations” by China, he has announced plans to increase the defense budget for the first time in 11 years and increase troop strength for the first time in 20 years. Even before Abe and his hawkish cabinet were swept into power, a Japanese government panel released recommendations in 2010 calling on the Japanese military to be prepared to participate in contingency operations in Korea and the Taiwan Straits, and urging Japanese officials to be open to lifting bans on “development and possession of nuclear weapons and their transportation to Japan,” according to a Defense News report. Cold War Legacies As Tokyo’s contingency plans suggest, China affects—and is affected by—the Cold War legacies in Taiwan and Korea. South Korea is understandably preoccupied with its unpredictable northern neighbor. But China’s passive approach to North Korea—and its aggressive approach to the rest of the neighborhood—have brought Tokyo and Seoul closer together on regional security issues. Both realize they face the same threats. Indeed, just as Japanese leaders are mulling the nuclear question, recent nuclear tests by North Korea have revived debate in South Korea about going nuclear. (Skillful American diplomacy would use these nuclear ruminations in Tokyo and Seoul as leverage with Beijing; more on that in the next column.)
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