With tensions between the US and China rising, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said Monday that if a Chinese invasion of Taiwan threatens the “survival” of Japan, Tokyo and Washington must intervene.
Japan’s post-World War II constitution only allows the country to deploy its armed forces if it comes under attack. In 2015, then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe amended Tokyo’s defense policy by adding a clause that allows Japan to defend its allies like the US in cases where Japan faces a “threat to its survival.”
“If a major incident happened [in Taiwan], it would not be strange at all if it touches on a situation threatening survival,” Aso said. “If that is the case, Japan and the US must defend Taiwan together.”
Japan has no formal relations with Taiwan but has been following Washington’s lead and is boosting ties with Taipei. In April, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and President Biden released a joint statement that called for “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
While the Suga-Biden statement might not seem like much, it was the first time the leaders of the US and Japan mentioned Taiwan in a joint statement since 1969. China slammed the statement and accused the US and Japan of “ganging up to form cliques and fanning bloc confrontation.”
The Biden administration views alliance building in Asia as vital to its anti-China policies, and Japan plays a role in this strategy. Japan is a member of the Quad, an informal grouping that also includes the US, India, and Australia, and is seen as a possible foundation for a NATO-style alliance in Asia.
The Biden administration has also committed to intervening if a maritime dispute between Japan and China in the East China Sea over the uninhabited Senkaku Islands turns violent. In one of his first phone calls as Pentagon chief, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reaffirmed that Article V of the US mutual defense treaty with Japan applies to the Senkakus.
Maybe the US will rebuild the the Japanese and the Ottoman empires. That will give the pentagon something to do for awhile.
This reminds me of Obama’s 2015 executive order about Venezuela – how that nation must be sanctioned because it represented an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” Pure fantasy!
I fear Japan’s breed of Imperial rightwingnuts are going to grab this opportunity to massively expand the Japanese Armed Forces. And very likely to start building both atomic and hydrogen bombs.
Isn’t the prospect of going to war with China to defend some uninhabited “disputed” islands just wonderful? Austin must have some loose screws rattling around somewhere.
Japan’s history as per China and the USA is nothing to be proud of. However, Japan today is a defeated country and the leadership has accepted eternal servitude to the Hegemon. We witnessed how the Japanese economy was stomped on by the US and has yet to recover. The US attempts to do the same to China, but the Chinese leaders are far smarter and these have failed.