Amid Improving Ties With Washington, China Rages at Japan-Philippine Talks on Waters Around Taiwan

The risk of armed confrontation surrounding a free Taiwan has increased even as America backs away from its commitment to defend the island democracy. Now, Communist China’s main target is Japan, not America.No sooner had Japan and the Philippines opened negotiations to talk about their sea borders than China dispatched coast guard vessels to defend what it claims as its waters between Taiwan, the Chinese mainland, and the Philippines, 155 miles to the south at its closest point.The shifting wrath shows the renaissance of historic Chinese-Japanese hostility and the warming Sino-American relationship as confirmed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Shangri-La gabfest at Singapore, on the heels of President Trump’s summit with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing.“Neo-militarism” is Beijing’s phrase for what it perceives as Japan posing a threat reminiscent of the era in which imperial Japanese forces ruled much of Asia before their defeat in 1945. A Chinese spokesman, Lin Jian, raged at Japan’s defense minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, for having rejected the “neo-militarism” label as now applied by China against Japan.Mr. Lin, at Beijing, blasted what he called Mr. Koizumi’s “rhetoric” at Shangri-La., calling his comments “groundless, pale, and powerless in the face of a series of historical facts, legal facts and figures,” according to China’s Global Times. “Japan’s militarism committed monstrous crimes during World War II, bringing profound suffering to its Asian neighbors and Allied countries,” he was quoted as saying.That response, compared with China’s newly friendly view of America, showed Beijing’s concern that Japan will emerge as the main guarantor of Taiwan’s freedom while Washington and Beijing work on getting along. The mood in Beijing would at once shift, of course, if President Trump were to sign off on $14 billion in military sales to Taiwan. That’s increasingly unlikely, however, at least until Mr. Trump sees Mr. Xi for yet another summit in September, this time at Washington.The debate between China and Japan focuses on their military budgets almost as much as China’s claims to the Taiwan Straits — separating Taiwan from the mainland by 90 miles at the closest point — and on the South China Sea, which China says is Chinese territory.Mr. Lin said Japan’s defense budget, about $56 billion this year, has hit “a postwar record high for the fifth consecutive year” while defense spending now is two percent of its gross domestic product on its way to a new goal of 3.5 percent. Japan’s military industry, newly freed from post-war constraints about exporting weapons, he said, has tripled in five years.Mr. Koizumi, at Shangri-La, took the opposite view without mentioning China by name. “There is a country that has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers,” the Japan Times quoted him as saying. “Japan has neither of such weapons. And yet Japan is labeled ‘new militarism.’ Isn’t it strange?”Mr. Koizumi hinted, however, at the hawkish policy of Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who has upset Beijing by hinting that Japan would rise to Taiwan’s defense in a showdown. Jabbing at China’s rising power in the Indo-Pacific, Mr. Koizumi said Japanese policy was to “seek a region that can stand against coercion,” not “misled by falsehoods” and “not influenced by pressure.”The inference was that Japan would actively oppose such goals, beginning with Taiwan. To Beijing, the prospect of Japan and the Philippines entering talks on their exclusive economic zone was “a sensitive political move that infringes upon China’s maritime rights and interests and undermines regional stability.” Neither the Philippines nor Japan is claiming any portion of the Taiwan Straits, but Beijing insisted that “the waters that Japan and the Philippines seek to delimit are closely tied to the maritime rights and interests of Taiwan,” On that logic, Beijing claimed “a bilateral deal must not infringe upon a third party’s lawful rights and interests.”Might Taiwan, upset by Mr. Trump’s pause in arms sales, turn to Japan as a supplier? The option seems plausible, judging by a none-too-subtle hint in the English-language Taiwan News.“No one knows how long Trump will hold up arms sales,” reads the commentary. “Surviving the next two and a half years without catastrophic damage to defense readiness would already be a victory for Taiwan. Achieving that, however, requires a proactive stance.”

Amid Improving Ties With Washington, China Rages at Japan-Philippine Talks on Waters Around Taiwan

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