Ozawa-like Dodging

Ichiro Ozawa is a distinguished politician in Japan, who survives by vesting responsibility of money scandal on his secretaries. Regardless his responsibility for overseeing his secretaries, Ozawa always dodges, saying “I don’t know about it. It was done by my secretaries.” The response to the consecutive incidents of Chinese navy vessels to have locked fire control radar on Japanese ships of the Maritime Self-defense Force was something like “Ozawa method.” As Ozawa has been requested a clear explanation, China has to say something more.

“I don’t know about the details of that. You should ask an appropriate section,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, in a press conference on Wednesday. She didn’t rebut Japanese objection on the incident. It was obviously different attitude of Chinese government, which has been explaining the activity of China around Senkaku Islands as “ordinary operation.” The response of Chinese government this time was actually equivocal.

The action China made can internationally be condemned. The Rule of Engagement Handbook drafted by officers in UK, Canada, Australia and US in 2009 defines illuminating with fire control radar as “proactive measures that may assist in ascertaining hostile intent.” Communicating or displaying a warning shot is not prohibited when the illumination occurred. A former official of the US Department of States told the locking on would be a cause of attack in the ROE of US military.

It is unlikely that the Chinese government, led by the General secretary of the Communist Party, totally uniformed about the proactive measures of their nave vessels. If the Chinese don’t understand the rule of engagement, its vessels should not go into international waters. The Japanese government revealed that the illumination of fire control radar was frequently done by Chinese vessels before Abe administration started last December. Nobody would believe that Chinese navy done that with its unilateral decision.

If the government of China explains these incidents as excessive and uncontrollably independent military action, there would be punishment on the leaders of the navy. If it acknowledges its responsibility, it should announce how to avoid the same kind of action. Building a hotline with Japan is one of the options China can make.

There comes an argument of reviewing the standard of use of weapons in Japan. It is about easing the restriction of weapons use limited to some cases as self-defense. Some hawkish lawmakers even request making rule of engagement, while the Constitution of Japan does not allow the nation the right of engagement. There are some people in Japan, who welcome China’s intimidations.