Japan is letting wolves into the Asia-Pacific region: China Daily editorial

Last week’s meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg must have brought relief to the guest as it helped him avoid the embarrassment of returning to Brussels empty-handed from his Asian trip, the first of its kind in history.

Both sides said they welcomed Japan’s progress in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s new individually tailored partnership program, which is expected to take bilateral cooperation “to new heights that reflect the challenges of the new era”. It deserves the attention of the entire Asia-Pacific, which should be wary of what it may signal.

Japan is doing nothing but a foothold in the Far East to maintain order based on “rules” serving the United States. The transatlantic alliance proposed to end the brutal Cold War. , his usual mentor, is certainly more than happy to encourage him.

Asia-Pacific is threatened by Moscow and Beijing, the Stoltenberg is saying this. The “authoritarian push against the international rules-based order” only sets the stage for him to try and sell the argument that “transatlantic and Indo-Pacific security are deeply intertwined”.

The proposal that Russia and China form an evil axis threatening the “rules-based international order” is something some strategists in Washington are trying to pedal around the world.

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NATO chief calls Japan a “challenge”. China makes China its common adversary, despite China’s denials.

In the China-containment bandwagon, Japan is ready to Jump and control.

Given it a move to “normalize” his position on the world stage, Stoltenberg would be hard-pressed to decide what he should do. NATO wedge in the area.

By mixing wolves with sheep in an otherwise peaceful and stable Asia-Pacific, Japan has sacrificed the interests of the entire region.

The strain in Sino-US relations has given right-wing political forces in Japan an opportunity to re-capture the stage. They have caused the country’s relatively rational and pragmatic China policy to fade rapidly, and Japan has now become the most active wholesaler of the “China threat” doctrine in Asia.

Allying with NATO would prove to be only the beginning of the pain that Japan would inflict on the entire region and on itself.