Security alliance threatens stability
The United States and Japan are planning the biggest upgrade to their security alliance since they signed a mutual defense treaty in 1952. According to reports, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce plans to restructure the US military command in Japan to strengthen operational planning and military drills between the two nations.
That Biden is to host a summit with Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. next month has fueled concerns that the upgrading of the US’ military alliances with the two countries will only aggravate the tensions in Asia.
What is more worrying is the fact that Japan is trying to urge Washington to strengthen the command structure in Japan. It wants the leader of US forces stationed in Japan to have more authority, which will make it easier for US forces and Japanese Self-Defense Forces to take joint military action. The military alliance between the US and Japan has been upgraded several times. Every step that has been taken to strengthen the alliance has helped Japan advance along the road to becoming a full-fledged military power.
In 2015, Japan’s National Diet enacted a series of laws that allowed Japan’s SelfDefense Forces to defend allies in combat. This changed the nature of Japan’s military forces, enabling them to take part in military actions outside Japan for the first time since World War II. The upcoming plan to upgrade the US-Japan military alliance is even more dangerous. It will very likely grant Japan’s military force the right to launch attacks instead of only taking defensive actions.
Japan has over the past couple of years significantly increased its security capabilities, doubling its spending on defense since 2022, including the proposed purchase of US Tomahawk cruise missiles. The Japanese military has also decided to set up a “Joint Operations Command” next year to improve coordination between the branches of its Self-Defense Forces. Japan described China as an “unprecedented strategic challenge” in its recent defense document. Both Washington and Tokyo do not mince words when hyping up the threat from China. That explains why this upgrading of the Japan-US alliance will make the situation in East Asia even more fraught.
Beijing has stressed time and again that China’s rise is peaceful. What China is doing in the South China Sea, contrary to the claims of “aggression”, is to defend its own sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is the Philippines with the collusion of the US that has been challenging the status quo with its brazen provocations. China maintains that the maritime disputes should be settled through talks, and can be shelved for joint development if they cannot be settled for the time being.
As far as the Taiwan question is concerned, it is China’s internal affair. Whatever way the island is reunited with the motherland, it is none of any other country’s business. Not Japan’s, and not the US’. Their meddling is ill-intentioned and self-serving.
It is unjustifiable and dangerous for Japan and the Philippines to hitch their wagons to the US’ war chariots. By acting as pawns of the US in its geopolitical game, the two countries will only intensify the volatility in the region, which is in neither’s interest. The continued upgrading of the military alliance between Japan and the US will increase regional tension, do a disservice to regional peace by increasing the likelihood of Japan making a misstep and create barriers to regional economic cooperation.
China has no intention of waging a war against any country. China’s military spending is not for aggressive purposes but to ensure its defense capabilities keep up with the times and that it has the wherewithal to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.