Sino-Russo Alliance

Obsessive revisionism held by Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, appeared to be encouraging Sino-Russo alliance. In a meeting in Shanghai, Presidents of China and Russia, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, agreed on having joint memorial ceremony for victory in World War II next year. They shared recognitions that they would oppose manipulation of history and destruction of post-war international order. Although the agreement should be one of the attempts to counter Western values, Abe’s eccentric political agenda was proved to be a soft target for their coalition.

The meeting was held before the opening of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which is a framework for peace and security by twenty-four nations in Asia. Both leaders realized next year as the seventieth anniversary of victory in anti-fascism war and Chinese people’s anti-Japan war. “We must not repeat tragedy of brutal invasion with fascism and militarism,” told Xi.

Abe’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine last December spread broad skepticism to not only China and other Asian nations, but to the United States and Europe. By positioning Abe’s revisionism as a diffusion of militarism and by connecting that militarism with fascism, China invited Russia into a joint effort to denounce Japan. Suffered from pressure from U.S. and Europe over intervention to Ukraine crisis, Russia accepted it as a measure of diplomatic reinforcement against U.S. and Europe.

On the same day, both countries started joint military exercise off the coast of Shanghai. Destroyers, cruisers loading missiles and submarines participated in the demonstration. They will also have joint practice for identification of aircrafts and air defense using their brand-new fighter jets. Embracing some difficulties over negative impact of Russian intervention in Ukraine and China’s technological maneuvers on fighter jets, the two big powers in Asia are preparing for U.S. rebalancing to Asia.

For China and Russia, Japan became one of the convenient targets in their Asia-Pacific strategy. Japan’s militarism occupies central position of China’s accusation toward Japan. Although Putin maintains moderate relationship with Abe, he sees Japan as a customer for their energy, the position which China can replace. By appealing Japan’s arrogance in history interpretation, they expect to make U.S.-Japan alliance less workable.

Alliance over history interpretation may divide the world in two. Traditional division has been between winners and losers, and then, democracy and totalitarianism. Now, China and Russia are taking advantage of separation between winners and losers within democracy group. Here is a question: What are you going to do for reunification of democracies?