Looks Like Appeasement

Naming itself as “Pacific Nation,” though, the United States does not show its willingness to come up with the expectation of its allies in the region. U.S. failed in making a progress on maritime disputes in the sixth round of Security and Economic Dialogue with China on Thursday. U.S. looks like behaving only for its own sake, leaving behind interests of countries suffering from China’s unilateral assertion.

Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, raised his voice for securing China’s interest in the South and East China Sea. “China is determined to protect sovereignty and maritime interest. The United States needs to take neutral position and should not take one side in this issue,” told him. Yomiuri Shimbun reported that China side seemed to have quoted statement of Chinese President, Xi Jinping, which had said “Reinforcement of military alliance focusing on the third party is useless for regional security.”

U.S. Secretary State, John Kerry, did not sharply rebuffed against China’s attitude. He did not mention this issue in the joint statement of S&ED, while Chinese side stressed their sovereignty and maritime right. “Chinese actions in the South China Sea and the East China Sea have generated concerns. And while the United States does not take sides on the sovereignty questions underlying these territorial disputes, we do believe that claimants should exercise restraint – all claimants – and adhere to peaceful and diplomatic ways of dealing with their disagreements,” Kerry told in a press availability in Beijing. As long as U.S. keeps this kind of neutrality, it is literally standing on China side. It is surely on the context of China’s strategy to divide the Pacific Ocean in two.

Instead, U.S. delegation was interested in North Korea, cyber security, climate change or wildlife trafficking. On cyber security, both exchanged criticisms against each other, raising prosecution of five Chinese military officers as industrial espionages or U.S. undercover surveillance revealed by former spy agent, Edward Snowden. But other issues were all about cooperation between the two. To the eyes of Japanese people, they looked like dealing with their own interests, leaving others’ interests behind.

U.S. opinion over the relationship with China has been divided between deterrence and accommodation. But top officials recently reiterated that U.S. had no intention to contain China, and emphasize its tolerance to China’s emerge. If U.S. has no intention to face China with military deterrence, it must not send mixed signal to Japan by saying that U.S. supports Japan’s administration in Senkaku Islands or by emphasizing that those islands fall on category of U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.