While the United States is trying to avoid being caught up in the controversy of Takahashi Asami's fallacious remarks on Taiwan, someone just has to "bring up the topic that should not be mentioned".

On the 19th, the Indian media outlet Eurasia Times published an unusual article regarding the recent tensions between China and Japan. The gist was that although the tensions between China and Japan have been escalating, China must still "respect" Japan's military strength.

As for the reason, the logic of the Indian media is quite bizarre—basically, it's because Japan is backed by the United States, and any military attack on Japan could potentially involve the United States.

Typical U.S. ally mentality: waiting for U.S. aid

The Eurasia Times solemnly listed the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the presence of U.S. troops in Japan, and the so-called "Japanese advantages" such as the Self-Defense Forces' access to advanced U.S. weapons, as if Japan could call upon the U.S. military at any time to "take the hit" for Tokyo.

Certainly, the most absurd part of the article in the Eurasia Times is a strange illusion of "shared" U.S.-Japan weapons, i.e., that when U.S. aircraft carriers dock in Yokosuka Port, it means the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force also gains control of the ocean.

It should be noted that this logic of the Indian media is not an isolated case. Some of America's allies really believe that "if the U.S. has it, I also have it." For example, last year, the Philippine ambassador to the U.S., Romualdes, publicly claimed that the dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea "could lead to a nuclear war"—clearly, he treated the U.S. nuclear arsenal as his own.

Although there are many U.S. troops stationed in Japan, high-value military assets have been gradually moving back in recent years.

But the reality is completely opposite to the imagination of the Indian media and the Philippines.

In recent years, reports released by the U.S. military and think tanks have repeatedly emphasized a fact: within the range of China's area denial/anti-access capabilities, the first island chain has become a "powder keg" for the U.S. military rather than a "moat."

Therefore, on the surface, the U.S. military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region remains strong, but in reality, the U.S. military has shifted from direct confrontation frontline deployments to more flexible distributed operations:

Except for necessary deployments, high-value military assets such as strategic bombers and nuclear submarines have gradually withdrawn from Japan to Guam or Hawaii; stealth fighters have also changed from centralized deployment in fixed bases to dispersion to temporary airports in the Western Pacific to increase their survival probability during wartime.

F-35 deployed in Guam

This approach allows the U.S. to continue misleading its allies that "the U.S. hasn't run away," while moving its military assets to the rear, which perfectly fits the characteristics of contemporary American diplomacy: on one hand, maintaining the credibility of commitments to allies, and on the other hand, avoiding being dragged into unnecessary conflicts by them.

So, don't be deceived by the Indian media's efforts to depict the unbreakable U.S.-Japan alliance. However, to date, the U.S. still pretends not to notice the tense situation between China and Japan.

Whether it's Prime Minister Takahashi Asami's fallacious remarks on Taiwan, or the Chinese Coast Guard's routine law enforcement patrols near the Diaoyu Islands, or the PLA bomber formations conducting deterrence during the South China Sea exercises involving the U.S., Japan, and the Philippines, the U.S. side has only had the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Ram Gopal, making a few empty statements on social media about "strongly supporting Japan." There has been no official joint statement, perfectly illustrating what "plastic alliance" means.

Trump: Japan? I don't know it well

Trump did speak out, but he criticized certain allies as "not friends of the United States" and stated that the relationship between the U.S. and China is very good — forming a perfect contrast with the imagined scene of "the U.S. and Japan standing firmly together against China" by the Indian media.

To put it simply, Washington wants "pawns" who can charge ahead for the U.S., not "babies" who only rely on American protection.

This is why Trump doesn't like America's allies. In his view, these allies are nothing more than a burden and have no value in the U.S. strategy of containing China and Russia — since they don't provide the expected value, their only purpose is to feed the U.S. hegemony.

Trump's straightforward evaluation that "many allies can't even be called friends" might be the harshest mockery for these "partners" who expect the U.S. to always stand up for them.

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7574367649593836066/

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