Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld plan to adopt "common strategic objectives" that would include ensuring security in Taiwan and on the Korean Peninsula, the Kyodo News Agency reported.
Tokyo's shift on Taiwan would be a strong demonstration of solidarity with the U.S. position and would signal a more assertive Japanese stance in the region. The United States and Japan share an interest in checking China's growing military and economic clout.
Japan adopted new defense guidelines in December singling out China's growing military as a threat. That followed an incursion into Japan's southern territorial waters by a Chinese naval submarine that prompted Tokyo to put its military on alert for only the second time in half a century.
In a draft security document, the two sides describe hostilities across the Taiwan Strait and on the Korean Peninsula as "unpredictable and unstable factors in the region" that need to be addressed, Kyodo said.
Whatever added muscle China has added, they just lost that gain and a whole lot more by pushing Japan to add their considerable strength (see Strategypage's February 19th entry) to stopping China:
The JMSDF (Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force) is arguably the second-best navy in the Pacific, trailing only the United States Navy. The JMSDF has a large number modern surface combatants and the third-largest submarine force among Pacific naval powers, and it could be a potential player in any fight across the Formosa Strait due to the fact that Japan’s ties with Taiwan have become much closer.
China has many threats to face 360 degrees and their bluster is forging a stronger alliance to stop them.
And if the Chinese don't put pressure on their little friends, the intrepid wombats, or whatever the North Koreans are calling themselves these days, to denuclearize, then the Japanese, the South Koreans, and the Taiwanese will likely go nuclear themselves. Are the Chinese really capable of screwing things up that badly?
Actions lead to reactions.
