Paku Midin: JAPAN LOOKS TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO LOWER TEMPERATURE IN CHINA ROW

JAPAN LOOKS TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO LOWER TEMPERATURE IN CHINA ROW - JAPAN

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

Japan is continuing to take what it says is a “calm and resolute” response in its ongoing dispute with China — a row that has grown more heated with last week’s military radar incident — as it looks to the international community to help lower the temperature.

“Gaining the understanding of other nations regarding the Japanese government's policies and stance is of the utmost importance,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, the government’s top spokesman, said Thursday.

Japan had “consistently taken various opportunities” to explain Tokyo’s position to other countries in a “timely and appropriate manner” and will continue to do so, he added, noting that the country has maintained “close communication” with allies and partners over the radar incident.

Tokyo’s approach, which most recently saw Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi hold separate talks with his Italian counterpart and the NATO chief on Wednesday evening, has stood in stark contrast to Beijing’s repeated assertions that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s unprecedented remarks last month on a Taiwan emergency signal that Japan is bent on a return to its World War II-era militaristic ways.

Takaichi’s comments on Nov. 7, that the Self-Defense Forces could be deployed under certain “worst-case” scenarios, such as a Chinese naval blockade of democratic Taiwan, which she said would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, have opened a near-daily rush of condemnation by China.

On Saturday, the dispute took on a military dimension, when Air Self-Defense Force aircraft scrambled to monitor Japanese airspace were targeted by the radar systems of Chinese carrier-based fighter jets.

Tokyo and Beijing have traded accusations over the radar encounter, with Japan refuting China’s claims that it had given sufficient advance notice of military drills and calling its claims that the ASDF fighters harassed Chinese forces “unfounded.”

With both Japan and China digging in after the latest incident and on their larger row, both sides are now girding for a prolonged dispute — and looking to secure support for their positions.

During Koizumi’s videoconference with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the Japanese defense chief emphasized that Tokyo would respond to Chinese moves such as the radar illumination “in a calm and yet resolute manner.”

“Both sides shared their grave concerns over this incident and concurred to closely communicate with each other,” the Defense Ministry said late Wednesday.

Koizumi’s talks with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto the same day echoed this approach, with the Japanese defense chief discussing the radar incident as well as Tuesday’s long-range joint flight by two Russian and Chinese bombers from the Sea of Japan to the skies of the western Pacific Ocean off the coast of Shikoku for the first time.

Koizumi criticized the flight as clearly intended to be “a show of force against Japan,” while China’s Defense Ministry said it had highlighted Beijing and Moscow’s “shared resolve and capability to address regional security challenges and safeguard peace and stability.”

Wednesday’s outreach by Koizumi came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration weighed in for the first time on the radar incident.

“China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement, reiterating its “unwavering” commitment to its alliance with Japan and adding that it was “in close contact on this and other issues.”

The State Department criticism — although mild when compared with past U.S. criticism of Chinese moves against America’s Asian allies — was expected to ameliorate for the time being Japanese complaints that Washington is not offering enough public support for Tokyo as tensions with Beijing surge.

Trump himself has not publicly addressed either the radar incident or Takaichi’s comments.

But Tokyo did get a boost on Thursday, when the Defense Ministry announced that the U.S. had sent nuclear-capable bombers over the Sea of Japan to join ASDF fighter jets, as the allies “reaffirmed their strong resolve to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. forces.”

The flight of two U.S. B-52 heavy bombers alongside three ASDF F-35 stealth fighters and three F-15 jets was the first high-profile activity by the U.S. military in the area since China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier flotilla began exercises in international waters off Okinawa Prefecture late last week.

But with Trump anxious to seal a broad trade deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a planned state visit to Beijing in April, Tokyo’s concerns are unlikely to completely disappear as the White House shies away from more explicit moves that could alienate China ahead of that trip.

“As the Trump administration pursues a tactical stabilization and fragile truce with China, it’s critical, in my view, that Washington and Tokyo remain aligned and that this rapprochement not come at Japan’s expense,” former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, told a think tank event Tuesday.

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