U.S. President Obama is planning to visit four Asian countries, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), the Philippines and Malaysia in late April 2014. According to the White House, Obama’s trip will highlight his “ongoing commitment to increase US diplomatic, economic and security engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.” It is about four years now since Obama declared he would be America’s first “Pacific president” and announced his strategy of rebalancing to Asia. What are the major new developments in U.S. relations with Asian countries since then and what does Obama need to do to strengthen America’s constructive role in Asia?
Wu Zurong
Since Asia is very dynamic and fast growing, there may be many answers to these two basic questions. However, the selection of countries Obama is scheduled to visit reveals one obvious answer. The focus of Obama’s visit is on U.S. allies in Asia. Those allies are increasingly concerned about U.S. staying power in Asia due to the cancellation of his planned trip last year and America’s continued efforts to deal with the Ukraine crisis, an assertive Russia and thorny issues in the Middle East. Therefore, Obama has to reaffirm his commitment and help increase the confidence of allies in the US capacity to implement its strategy of rebalancing to Asia. This answer seems to be natural and right, judging from US selfish interests in relations regarding its Asian allies and its maintenance of “leadership position” in Asia. In order to help promote peace and stability in Asia and to work for the long-term interests of the US, it is imperative that Obama makes it a top priority to prevent Japan from continuing on its dangerous path of reviving militarism guided by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s rightist political line before it is too late. History will tell whether Obama has made the right strategic judgment and done the right thing for the U.S. and the world, or if he made a serious mistake that would result in incalculable consequences for world peace in the long run.
More and more new problems have cropped up in the U.S.-Japan relations as the U.S. continues to rely on Japan for strengthening its “leadership position” in Asia by fostering Japanese military forces under the U.S.-Japan military alliance that was formed during the Cold War. The most worrisome tendency is that Shinzo Abe is becoming more and more stubborn and insists on having his own way on major issues involving vital national interests of other countries including the U.S. This is shown by his politically right wing position on historical issues regarding Japanese militarist war crimes and his carefully calculated visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, despite strong opposition from China, the ROK and repeated persuasion of the U.S. With Abe’s lead, individual Japanese politicians came out to accuse the U.S. military of slaughtering during operations targeted at Japan in World War II. There was a loud clamor in Japanese public media for negating Japanese fascist aggression and war crimes during the Second World War. Due to the lack of intensity or seriousness in U.S. criticism of Abe’s perverse behavior on historical issues, Abe and his cabinet members are still making dazzling remarks on those issues without any sincerity of self-examination. As a result, Japan’s relations with China and the ROK are getting weaker, even though there was a rare meeting between the U.S., Japan and the ROK leaders in Hague last March. If the U.S. truly wants Japan to improve relations with its neighbors, the visit to Japan will provide the best opportunity for Obama to help Japanese leaders, Abe in particular, to eliminate this major obstacle.
Another thing Obama needs to do during his visit is to help Japan resolutely abandon Abe’s dangerous strategy to revive Japanese militarism under the pretext of the so-called “China threat,” which he has been intent on fabricating by exploiting every possible chance at home and abroad. There are several reasons why Abe’s strategy is dangerous. Firstly, it goes without saying that any intention on the part of Japan to revive militarism is dangerous since there has been growing indication that Abe and his cabinet intend to do so. Common people have now come to see very clearly where Japan is going by observing the series of steps taken by Abe and his cabinet, such as well-planned amendments to the peace constitution, reconsideration of the principle of “collective self-defense,” storage of abundant weapon-grade nuclear materials and suspected possible development of nuclear weapons, revised principles of weapons export, constant provocations against China and the ROK on territorial disputes, ongoing specific measures to strengthen the military forces and so on.
Secondly, the so-called “China threat” simply doesn’t exist in reality. China’s commitment to peaceful development is sincere and firm. China has reaffirmed on many occasions that it persists in resolving territorial disputes with its neighbors by peaceful means and through negotiations with relevant countries. The present danger is that Abe and his cabinet are trying, by every possible means, to fabricate the “China threat,” and to have it exaggerated to its extreme so that they would feel well-reasoned to strengthen their military forces beyond defense needs and revive militarism without being exposed or criticized.
Thirdly, even a more serious problem arises from the fact that some U.S. politicians and senior diplomats have been taken in and echoed some of Abe’s views or support part of Abe’s actions. They choose to believe in the falsehood of the “China threat” and deliberately stress that Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty covers the Diaoyu Island of China. Their purpose is to pave the way for the U.S. to intervene in the territorial disputes between China and Japan to woo Japan for the consolidation of the U.S. “leadership position” in Asia. But they fail to understand that such words and deeds will result in serious consequences contrary to their intentions. With Japan as a strong military power, U.S. control of Japan and coordination with it would be more difficult or even impossible, and the U.S. “leadership position” in Asia would face even more challenges. As Japan’s territorial ambitions grow with more provocations made, it will not feel satisfied no matter how much the US has done for Japan at the expense of the interests of Sino-U.S. relations. The role of U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in the Sino-Japan territorial disputes would be expanded to such a dangerous level that the US might be dragged into the ever-growing Sino-Japanese confrontation or any unexpected possible conflict. It is a wise choice for the U.S. to make up its mind to get out of the military alliance quagmire as soon as possible.
As Japan’s political orientation involves the success or failure of the U.S. strategy of rebalancing to Asia, the peace and stability in the region and the long-term interests of the U.S., it is high time for Obama to earnestly help Japan not to go any further on the dangerous path of reviving militarism, but to return to the road of peaceful development. The U.S. would be held accountable for the disruption of peace and stability in Asia if it continues to persist in further strengthening the U.S.-Japan military alliance or goes a step further in its attempt to create a similar military alliance in Asia like NATO in Europe.
Wu Zurong is a research fellow at the China Foundation for International Studies.
