Saturday, July 12, 2014

A War Cry from Pacific?

Was there a need for kicking the giant multiple times to wake it up from deep sleep? I don’t think so; China could have continued the affairs in South China Sea and Senkaku/ Diaoyu islands in a low key manner. Unnecessary push from Chinese end only made the matters worse and transformed the wide open sea to major flash point.

The self-proclaimed nine-dotted lines border was not going down well with neighbors Vietnam, Philippines etc. So as the issues related to Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. The continued face offs in various shovels and reefs only made the matters worse and raised the nationalistic fever in concerned nations. When people started thinking in nationalistic lines they often leave the reasons, logics and after effects of their own actions far behind. Finally authorities compelled by domestic pressure will be forced to act against any mutual acceptable solutions.

After effects of these actions started happening in various capitals. This time major focus is on Japan and Vietnam. In Vietnam people already started taking the matters in to their own hands and attacking Chinese companies. In Japan things didn’t become violent but took a decisive turn when, Prime Minister Abe announced and interpretation.

“Since 1947, Japan’s Constitution, written and imposed by the American Army, has permitted the military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, to engage only in self-defense. That meant the large and technologically advanced armed forces was barred from “collective self-defense” — aiding friendly countries under attack — and thus was far more constrained than those of other nations.

With the reinterpretation, Japan’s military would still face restrictions on what it could do, but it would be allowed for the first time, for example, to help defend an American ship under attack, destroy a North Korean missile heading toward the United States or play a larger role in United Nations peacekeeping operations.” – NYT

This will only help to created more tensions in the area.

I strongly recommend all the concerned nations to take this issue to international court and arbitration and abide by its decision as per United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Sajeev

References

1. Japan Announces a Military Shift to Thwart China - NYT
2. Japan and the Limits of Military Power - NYT

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