Japanese [cite Chinese] military influence as security threat

[ardo]

TOKYO -- Japan on Tuesday flagged the [PLA's] growing role in shaping the country's foreign policy as a security risk...

In its annual defense white paper, Tokyo said some believe that relations between the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Communist Party leadership were "getting complex" and said this was a matter of concern.



"China has responded to conflicting issues involving Japan and other neighboring countries in a way that has been criticized as assertive, raising worries about its future direction."

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20120801-362659.html

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman... criticized "irresponsible statements" by... Japanese officials over the disputed islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and said China would defend its rights.

"Protecting national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests is the common responsibility of all concerned departments, including the military, and we will closely coordinate with other departments in conscientiously discharging our responsibilities," he told reporters in Beijing.

In the white paper, Tokyo reaffirmed the importance of its alliance with the United States. "The presence of U.S. forces stationed in Japan functions as deterrent against regional contingencies, and it brings the sense of security to countries in the region," it said.

[Ceewan]

Defence Minister Satoshi Morimoto said the sense of caution is shared by many countries in the region. "It is not that caution has been rising. But it is true that there exists a certain sense of caution not only in Japan but across East Asia regarding which way China is headed," he told reporters.

Japan has frequently criticised China in past reports for not being open enough about its military decision-making process, but Japanese Defence Ministry officials who briefed reporters said this is the first time it has raised the relationship between the military and the civilian leadership as an issue.

The report noted that China's defence budget has increased 30-fold over the past 24 years and that its navy is trying to improve its ability to operate in the open seas so that its ships can carry out missions farther away from its own shores.

The report comes out at a time when China's senior officers, intelligence advisers and maritime agency chiefs have been increasingly outspoken in calling for Beijing to take a tougher line in regional territorial disputes with rival claimants.

Chinese military activity has been evident lately in territorial disputes that have raised regional tensions.

Japan and China are at odds over the Senkaku islands - called Diaoyu in Chinese - and China's navy has been increasingly involved in disputes over islands in the South China Sea.

source, (good reading):
http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC120801-0000040/Chinese-naval-operations-worry-Japan

A week ago China announced that it had stationed a garrison in Yangxing Island. Simultaneously, it also established the city of Sansha on the same island to govern its disputed territory in the South China Sea.

Many analysts agree that China’s actions are symbolically important. China was sending a political message to its neighbors, stressing its seriousness in defending its claims over the region. But the new deployment has only a minimal military value, as any serious military action would still be mounted from bases in Hainan.

China’s message, however, compounded by the recent botched Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Phnom Penh, raised the tension in the dispute concerning the ownership of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

source, (more good reading):
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opini...knesses/533873

Japan’s Nikkan Sports newspaper has reported on a public opinion survey conducted by China’s Global Times newspaper. The survey asked people in China and Taiwan if they supported military action to “protect” their territorial claim to the Senkaku Islands.

90.1% of respondents in mainland China said they supported military action. About 80% of mainland Chinese also showed a great deal of interest/concern in their territorial dispute with Japan. Over half (51.2%) believed that it could lead to an armed conflict between Japan and China.

A sizable percentage of Taiwanese (41.2%) also supported the use of military means to protect their country’s claim to the islands. Only 23.7% of Taiwanese opposed it.

This news report comes after some other very disturbing reports about China. Earlier this month, Major General Jin Yinan, the director of China’s National Defense Strategy Institute, went on a state-owned radio program and declared that the Senkakus AND all of Okinawa be “returned” to China. He argued that the Japanese “occupation” of Okinawa was illegal and that the islands should become a Chinese vassal state.

source:
http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/07/21/poll-90-of-chinese-support-military-action-over-senkaku-islands/

of interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army

http://english.sina.com/china/2012/0726/490205.html

http://english.sina.com/china/2012/0726/490181.html

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/T120726004559.htm

[TravelingWind]

WW3 is around the corner

I can smell it

Welp i liked living sometimes

Hope the next life is better

[Satoru182]

Those danm chinese those islands are really tiny what they care so much, their country is huge.

As the song goes: "Why cant we be friends"

[Gir633]

It's probably not so much the islands themselves as much as extending territorial rights to the sea areas around the islands.

[megatroll]

This is nothing new.
They've both been chain rattling for a long time now.

I see so much irony in this situation though, firstly Japan being occupied by the US for over 75, while at the same time supposedly occupying Chinese land, in return causing the US to occupy Australia... it's just a game of chess between the US and China. Japan is just a playing ball and serves the US as giant aircraft carrier. The geo political table is turning, slowly but steadily. The US is on its last efforts to contain Chinese growth, which hasn't even begun yet.

Originally Posted by TravelingWind

WW3 is around the corner

I can smell it

Not really. The US tries their best to push towards military conflict, thus cutting off Chinese recources from the African coast and installing new bases in Australia, but it won't happen. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and China played the waiting game, which surprisingly seems to pay off. They've witnessed one American colonial land grab after the other, while China bought dept and outsourced slave labour. With Russia being silent observer. Military empires never get taken down. They collapse from the inside. A typical sign is the increase in militarism and decline of infrastructure, as seen with the Roman empire. This is not about the island. It's a childish chain rattling contest in which Japan itself has no role at all.

China shouldn't act this way. They're not ready yet.

[prophetomega]

its kinda scary but somehow i'm excited

[Belion]

All I can say is China is a BIG BULLY of Southeast Asia PERIOD

[Uso, Shinji]

As one who studies East and South East Asian Security (Especially the Senkaku Islands dispute) I can tell you it is neither China's want to push the Senkaku as territory so much as it is the US's current use of 3 of the four islands as a bombing test ground for its Air and Navy Forces operating out of Okinawa. The real reason for China's "sudden" push to claim the islands is a joint discovery by South Korea and the UN that the East China sea, specifically close to the islands in question, may and most likely contains large untested oil deposits. Until the report was released in the 1960's, China held the the Islands where Japanese both by ascession from the second world war and that the only persons ever to inhabit the island was a bonito farmer (kind of dried fish flakes) and his workers. The man rented and ended up buying the islands from the Japanese government to which they were onsold and now lay in the hands of one family, specifically the eldest son (3 islands - the same ones the US use as a testing range) and the daughter of the family (the final island not used for testing). The fact that the US declaration following the second world war was so vague and the US's current stance that it will take no part in discussions on ownership of the islands adds to both Chinese and Japanese disputes. The islands are currently admistered (on behalf of the family that owns them) by the Kagoshima and Okinawan local governments although earlier this year interest by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Authority has seen a request to buy the islands from the family to both assert Japanese sovereignty and to establish the basis of construction of a permanent military base. Bear in mind that outside of the US mainland the largest US collection of armed forces is located in Japan including the massive build up of forces in Okiwa taking over 70% of the land mass of the islands and the 7th Fleet in Yokosuka. This in turn is the reason that China has not just sent their warships to claim the island.

References for these facts are readily available online and if so requested I will supply them.

Any questions or disagreements as to what I have said please don't hesitate to reply below. I acknoweledge I am no way 100% correct in my views but this is to the extent of my ability, the most correct account I have researched thus far.

[lactophilia]

Interesting article in the Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) from January 8th, 1953, in which the Senkaku Islands are apparently considered a part of Japanese territory. (Now the Chinese are searching for the traitor.)