The New Cold War in Asia

This would be a good time to hawk your unfinished copy of The Pentagon’s New Map on e-Bay. Have a look at the new blocs shaping Asia’s new Cold War:

ASEAN, Korea, Japan and China on Monday reiterated their commitment in principle to forming an East Asian Community on Monday, the first day of the ASEAN + 3 Summit. Heads of government from the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc met with the three affiliates in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

. . . .

President Roh Moo-hyun agreed with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the summit that a regular three-way summit with Japan will remain suspended while Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi persists in his visits to a controversial martial shrine that honors convicted war criminals.

This only focuses my own suspicions of the purity of the motives of Chinese and Korean leaders who find Yasukuni a politically convenient issue to revive. All the more reason why I don’t get why Koizumi still goes there, since the place does indeed present a distorted and sanitized view of history (something the Chinese and Koreans have done their own share of). You can read my own thoughts on my visit to Yasukuni here. GI Korea was actually there this week and has some must-read views, with contraband pics, too. For a long, thoughtful, and influential perspective, here’s what key congressional aide Dennis Halpin has to say on the broader subject of Japan’s guilt. Yes, Japan has far to go in the way of atonement, but there’s nothing like a hateful and cynical political spin to profane the merit out of an issue.

By the way, anyone else think seizing the property of collaborators’ descendants is a more than a bit despotic?

Now that South Korea is effectively neutralized, China’s goal is to isolate Japan, and eventually, the United States. A U.S. regional missile defense shield and naval alliance–let’s be the first to christen it PACTO–would be a good first step toward controlling Chinese access to the Pacific and limiting its powers of intimidation. It also avoids putting U.S. forces into places to whose defense we should not rashly commit ourselves. The goal should be to assist PACTO members protect themselves against China’s missiles, navy, and air force, and to involve our own forces only when strictly necessary to constitute an effective deterrent.

Meanwhile, we should be forming a separate alliance with the Chinese people.