Japan moves to challenge Chinese hegemony
Japan’s declaration of a plan to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May in its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War 2 is a veiled challenge to China not to assert its hegemony over international waters. The US has been holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation and Japan’s move comes as a supplement to that. Governed by common interest, India must support Japan’s subtle move and strengthen the resolve of the US and Japan to ensure freedom of navigation in the face of Chinese claims over ‘disputed’ waters. The growing Chinese military presence has been fuelling concern over Chinese intentions and the time for stopping the Chinese is now or else it would be too late. The Izumo helicopter carrier which was commissioned only two years ago, will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with the Indian and US naval vessels in the Indian Ocean in July. It will return to Japan the following month.
Parts of the South China Sea are being claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei because of its richness of oil and gas deposits, and of fishing. A whopping $5 trillion of global sea-borne trade passes through South China Sea annually. Last January, Beijing said it has “irrefutable” sovereignty over the disputed islands when the US asserted its right to defend “international territories.” The US on its part has been critical of China’s construction of man-made islands and a build-up of military facilities that it worries could be used to restrict free movement. India too concurs with this line but is wary of sticking its neck out unless it is assured of Japanese and US support.
India cannot but be concerned over the fact that Beijing is out to control all waterways. The China-Pakistan economic corridor passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is another attempt to connect with the sea and establish hegemony over the waterways. The manner in which the Chinese have been reaching out to the Maldives and earlier to Sri Lanka is also an index of the Chinese designs to gain access to and to establish hegemony over high seas. It is heartening that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has long been a friend of India, has taken the initiative to re-assert free access to the South China Sea.