Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered an address to Congress on Thursday and declared China the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the world.
“Close coordination between Japan and the US is required more than ever to ensure that deterrence that our alliance provides remains credible and resilient,” Kishida said, according to The South China Morning Post.
“China’s current external stance and military actions present the unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan, but to the peace and stability of the international community at large,” he added.
Kishida also praised the US for its role in leading the Western proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. “The Ukraine of today may be the East Asia of tomorrow,” he said. “The leadership of the United States is indispensable. Without US support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?”
A day earlier, President Biden hosted Kishida at the White House, and the two leaders announced new steps to bolster the US-Japan alliance, including an upgrade to military command and control structures to facilitate more military cooperation.
“We announce our intention to bilaterally upgrade our respective command and control frameworks to enable seamless integration of operations and capabilities and allow for greater interoperability and planning between US and Japanese forces in peacetime and during contingencies,” Biden and Kishida said in a joint statement.
They also announced plans to increase joint weapons production and the potential inclusion of Japan in the AUKUS military pact, which focuses on military technology sharing. “Recognizing Japan’s strengths and the close bilateral defense partnerships with the AUKUS countries, AUKUS partners – Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – are considering cooperation with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects,” the statement said.
Japan is a key part of the US’s preparations for a future war with China since it hosts over 50,000 troops, the largest foreign US military presence. Besides bolstering its own military footprint in Japan, the US is also encouraging Tokyo to build up its military, which breaks from Japan’s post-World War II constitution that renounces war and says armed forces with war potential should never be maintained. Kishida has announced several steps to significantly strengthen Japan’s military, including raising the military budget by 56%.
Just excellent, we’re nowhere close to resolving our proxy war with Russia and we can’t wait to pick another fight with China, with much higher stakes as we literally still buy everything from China despite all tariffs….including ALL electronic devices that you’re reading this on. Biden probably thinks the Cold War never ended and just can’t wait to divide up the world into stupid blocs yet again.
Since VJ Day they’ve been scrupulously craven; and now, clearly, Japan’s polscum has now gone full-neocon.
He neglected to mention that Russia nuked his country twice. He also neglected to mention that “The leadership of the United States is indispensable,” in getting his country nuked again by both Russia and China this time around.
Yes, your true neocon (as opposed to y’r NINO) confesses his faith to the Straussian global elite, the nation-state is passe’. The structure of the polity they recognize is Lord-clients-serfs, …back to the future.
What are they supposed to do? They gave up their economic sovereignty back in the eighties by signing Plaza Accords. Since, they went into debt, deeper and deeper, until hitting negative interest rates. Now, a country that has no energy is being leaned on to forego Rusdian oil and gas — but Japan refused to cave in. It owns a gas wxpliring site in Russia far east. At present, Japan’s top trading partner is China. Ditto Korea and Taiwan. It can no longer compete in manufacturing. Its only choice is to integrate into regional economy and focus on two things: strategic security (food, recources), and comparative advantage in its own manufacturing/scientific base.
And in the meantime maintain the mantra US expects. Words are cheap. Trade with China and energy from Russia is bread and butter.
National economy is a moving target, ditto nat’l sec, but the Nation is a constant. By 1980 Japan had recovered from its war time desolation and with national morale distinctly intact. Like Putin/Russia it should never have fallen for Neolib/Neoconism; but, rather should have persevered on the basis of bilateral trade agreements, and begun gradually building bilateral security agreements and defensive military capability. As it is they’re betting the farm on the faith of a very corrupt and faithless partner.
The Bank of Japan has only recently moved interest rates from negative to slightly positive to stave off a disaster for the Japanese currency. There is no assurance that this will be successful in the long run.
China on the other hand, while it is also in the throes of economic and financial changes, has become the world’s largest internal consumer market.
The statements of Kishida show me how desperately worried he is about the economic and financial state of his nation. He asks for our succor.
The only help which the Biden administration can give (sell) him are weapons. Weapons do not make automobiles.
China is Japan’s number one trading partner . Taiwan and South Korea as well. And we keep on interpreting everything that hapens in China’s economy through our economic doctrine.
We refuse to listen to what China says, and refuse to believe what they do. As if China spent all these years developing specialized operating systems (Harmany being one), 5G, Big Data, Internet of Things and AI — just to improve gaming experience? It was clear that a new industrial revolution is coming, but we chose not to believe. And when they went on new cities construction tear, we laughed. Empty cities — we cried.
Yet cities are now full of people who used to live on the margins of the society — and are employed in new manufacturing.
Jenet Yellen was in shock when — instead od increase in donestic consumprion China posted big manufacturing growth! She decried the development. China is too big, she said. The overcapacity in industry is flooding the world, she said.
Overproduction? I do not think she knows what being poor means — but there will be many a grateful nations in the world which can now afford to buy industrial and consumer products to finally seeing some daylight after the era of poverty and colonial exploitation.
They will have an alternative source. The price will make the difference. China is exporting deflation — an event welcome around the globe except in developed nations. We cannot afford to reduce costs, as the entire financial pyramid would colapse. We have to keep interest rates higher, to attract investors into our treasuries.
China’s Belt and Rioad continue to invest in infrastructure around the globe, and now a flood of products is on its way to alleviate pressure on developing nation borrowing.
Of course US can do well under any changed circumstances. And thrive. But it will require the end of lecturing others and complaining about their planning – and focus on our own goals and priorities. This requires different people at the helm.
Yellen is one horrible woman. In the 1990’s she penned a memo to Greenspan, agreeing with him that workers need to be on edge, desperate, to keep wages down, keep those profits up.
US quits weapons agreements and refuses to negotiate,
is conducting a trillions dollar weapons “upgrade”for itself,
insists US-occupied Japan & Germany re-militarize,
but claims it is only peaceful militarism.
Bring back the Japanese Zeros, the navy and Banzai charge then maybe I’ll consider these statements worthy.
“China’s current external stance and military actions present the unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan, but to the peace and stability of the international community at large,” he added.
Holy Fuck! He said that to the US CONGRESS?! Talk about not knowing your audience.
In other words, peace is the problem. The big problem. If one country does not dominate, the rest can expand. A dominant country will let out the stops to prevent a expanding world economy.
Bankrupt nations of the world — unite.
Great article in Counterpunch+ on US-Japan intel ops after WW2.