China opposed our heralded "pivot" to the Pacific region. So we had to expect China to resist, right? Backing Japan is the right thing do do:
In Tokyo this week (on his way to visit Chinese president Xi Jinping), Vice-President Biden told Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the U.S. firmly supports Japan's rejection of China's claim. "The U.S. and Japanese security liaison," Biden said, "is the cornerstone, not merely in the Pacific region, but the cornerstone on which our security is built for the next 20 years." Biden's statement reaffirmed an economic and geo-strategic fact. The U.S. sees Japan as an essential global security partner, not a Pacific Ocean trip wire.
Vice President Biden told the Japanes prime minister our aircraft would continue to patrol the area without China's approval and without notice:
Invoking the decades-old defense treaty between the U.S. and Japan, Abe said he and Biden confirmed that neither country should tolerate China's move, adding that both countries' air forces would continue to fly through without filing flight plans with China.
I suspect that when the Obama administration announced the pivot to Asia and the Pacific, it was really more about pivoting away from the Middle East without looking like a retreat from the Middle East.
China isn't cooperating by quietly going along with our new Pacific focus like it is just a domestic politics calculation for our president that has no bearing on China's actions.
Without resisting China's attempts to bully our friends and allies into compliance, the pivot has no point.
As Napoleon might have advised President Obama, when you start to pivot to Asia and the Pacific, pivot to Asia and the Pacific.
