US Wants Out Of Pacific Islands Mess
WASHINGTON: Wars have started over less. Even as the administration "rebalances" to Asia, it is scrambling to stay out of the region's escalating territorial disputes. None is more baffling to outsiders than the three-sided conflict over the tiny, uninhabited islands known in Japanese as the Senkakus and in Chinese as the Diaoyus or the Tiaoyutai.
And that dispute keeps escalating. Just this morning, China's Xinhua news service announced four warships of the rapidly growing PLA Navy had "patrolled" the waters off the Japanese-controlled isles, just the latest in a series of naval probes. On the U.S. side, the Senate passed an annual defense bill that included a (non-binding) "Sense of the Senate" amendment from Virginia's James Webb pledging the US will stand by its treaty commitments to defend "territories under the administration of Japan," explicitly including the Senkakus, against "armed attack."
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With two longtime allies pitted against not only each other but also against East Asia's largest power, the US is eager to stay out. Even as the US sends aircraft carriers to reassure its allies and develops an "AirSea Battle" doctrine aimed at defeating China, senior officers have said point-blank that the US will not go to war over "rocks."
"We don't take sides anywhere in the world on these things," said Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Locklear, repeating the administration's mantra in a talk to the Asia Society during his visit to Washington last week. That said, he went on, "I don't think these [conflicts] are going to go away, and we have to figure out how to get through them without miscalculation, without bringing warships and warplanes in."
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"I'm a little perplexed by Beijing's approach because I thought by now they would begin to pull back from the regular incursions," said James Schoff, one of Carnegie's indigenous experts. "I can't believe they actually expect they're going to change Japan's position [by] sending ships in and out of those waters."
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"By design, we're in competition with each other," Adm. Locklear said of the US and China. "That's a good thing. That's what fuels the global economy."
"The question," Locklear went on, "is how you do you manage the competition between large countries, large economies... in a productive way rather than one that leads you down the path of destruction."
Hawkish approach won't help | The Japan Times Online
One major issue in the campaign for the Dec. 16 Lower House election is the diplomatic dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Some politicians and others on the Japanese side are taking a hawkish stance, but such an approach will only harden attitudes on the Chinese side, making it more difficult to resolve the issue. In such difficult diplomatic circumstances, it is all the more important to act in a coolheaded manner and to demonstrate ingenuity.
Conspicuous in the current election campaign is the hawkish approach of the Liberal Democratic Party, which is calling for revising the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution to create the National Defense Force and for exercising the right to collective self-defense. Some of the so-called third pole forces, including the Japan Restoration Party, take a similar stance.
The approach of these parties would only serve to heighten bilateral tensions, perhaps even to the point of spurring an arms race, which would weaken Japan's security and deepen suspicion in the international community over Tokyo's intentions in East Asia.
Right now, we don't need an alliance with Japan
But this is not the whole story. Ask yourself why Tokyo is so interested in a closer relationship with Australia? The answer of course is China. Japan is very worried indeed about China's growing power, and about the US's willingness to stand up for them against Beijing. So, Tokyo seeks a regional coalition against China, and we are the first cab off the rank. Whatever Canberra may say, for Tokyo, a closer defence relationship with Australia is all about lining us up to support Japan against China.
This is a very good reason to push the pause button on the alliance with Japan. But even in its own terms we need to ask searching questions about what a closer defence relationship with Japan would really deliver to Australia, and what it would cost.
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The fact is that for all our close alignment of values and outlook, Australia and Japan have rather different strategic interests because our strategic geography is different. And when alliances are tested, it's interests that count, not values.
This is not to say that one day, in different circumstances, an alliance with Japan might not make sense for Australia. If the US withdraws from Asia, and we face a China intent on regional hegemony, then alliance with Japan might be one of the options open to us. But until that happens we should give top priority to building a policy aimed at avoiding such a predicament. An alliance with Tokyo has no place in such a policy.
Filipino Albert del Rosario a lone Asean voice taking on China | South China Morning Post
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario refuses to stay quiet as regional partners fail to agree on policies for territorial row with China
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With Beijing still deriding "provocations" after a Philippine naval ship challenged Chinese fishermen early this year, Fu Ying , the vice-minister for foreign affairs, recently told him that Beijing intended to keep coastguard-type vessels at the shoal permanently.
China has also used ropes to block access to the interior of the shoal, which falls within its controversial nine-dash line claim to virtually all of the South China Sea.
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Some Filipino businessmen have questioned his tactics towards dealing with China while Senator Antonio Trillanes, who is running a back channel to Beijing, has said del Rosario has mis-handled formal negotiations over Scarborough.
Del Rosario has, however, denied reports he will resign and he apparently has Aquino's backing.
Reports in China's state media this week show just how tough a road lies ahead. In news stories outlining last week's appointment to Beijing of new Philippine ambassador Erlinda Basilio, mainland analysts and scholars made it clear that Beijing was in no mood to see Manila "stirring up trouble".
Thanks to our new Supreme Leader Xi Jinping, our enemies are running away with tail between their legs! 
