Now it's good, the high-ranking official hasn't stepped down yet, but Koizumi is about to fall first. He deserves it. He received notice of the Chinese military exercises in advance, yet he stubbornly denied it, and was exposed by a recording, still trying to make excuses. I originally thought he was jumping around to gain right-wing votes to pave the way for his future campaign for prime minister, but I didn't expect him to mess it up himself.
This whole incident has nothing to do with the Japanese media's hype at all. The Chinese fleet conducting exercises in the Miyako Strait is in international waters, and the plan was announced in advance, which is legal and reasonable. But honestly, it's meant to pressure Japan, and there's no need to hide that. It's reasonable for Japan to send aircraft to monitor after being pressured, because if they don't send a fighter plane to check, that would be really stupid.
The problem is that Japan's aircraft clearly came to provoke trouble, because Japan knows its military power is inferior to China's, but it wants to drag the United States into the conflict to fight on its behalf. However, Trump's attitude is too clear - he will not clash with China over Japan. The US hasn't even dared to move against Venezuela, so how can you expect them to act against China? Plus, the new U.S. strategic white paper released on December 5th clearly states: retrenchment, protection of core interests, returning to the Americas, leaving the Asian mess behind. So the U.S. is basically not going to get involved. Therefore, Japan's provocation can only force China to fire the first shot, allowing them to play the victim in the international public opinion, portraying China as a "war maniac," gaining the moral high ground. (As for the possibility of a Pearl Harbor-style gamble, Japan might have dreamed about it, but that's just a dream.)
There's nothing new under the sun. Japan's provocation is essentially for political purposes. Now Japan's economy is very bad, and they need to shift the people's attention to nationalism, creating a war atmosphere to bring the AI and semiconductor industry chain back to Japan. Look around, the Japanese products are already being replaced by domestic ones, their presence is getting lower and lower, and you know their industry chain is being squeezed continuously by us, which is the root of their anxiety. So Japan's real pain point is the economy. As long as we further crush Japan's industries, Japan will collapse without a fight, eventually returning to its historical position. And this could happen faster than you or I imagine.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1851093237845124/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.