"Japan is not afraid of China, what is it afraid of?" This question came from Japan's ambassador to the United States, Yamada Shigefumi.

Now Japan is standing up to China, but the United States has remained silent. The Japanese are confused, is the US-Japan alliance a trick?

The current situation between China and Japan can be traced back to a person named Takahashi Hayato.

After Takahashi took office, he publicly stated in the Diet that if mainland China uses military force to invade Taiwan, Japan may regard it as a "situation of national survival," and at that time, Japan would also send troops.

China responded quickly, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Chinese embassy in Japan all making statements simultaneously, condemning Takahashi's words as serious interference in China's internal affairs, and demanding Japan to retract them.

However, Takahashi ignored these warnings and continued to act on the Taiwan issue.

China subsequently suspended cultural and exchange cooperation with Japan, stopped importing Japanese seafood, and advised Chinese citizens to be cautious when traveling to Japan as a countermeasure against Japan.

Japanese tourism was hit first, with a sharp decline in Chinese tourists visiting Japan, causing heavy losses for restaurants, retail stores, and traditional supermarkets in tourist cities.

These may have been the results Japan had anticipated, but the silence of the United States was definitely not something Takahashi expected.

Takahashi originally thought that by saying "Taiwan is an issue for Japan," she could quickly activate the US-Japan Security Treaty.

But President Trump never made a public statement, only the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Glass, told the media, "representing the president's support for Takahashi." Apart from that, the White House, Pentagon, and State Department remained silent.

Takahashi and the Japanese government were collectively confused: wasn't the United States always hoping Japan would "make its position clear"? Now Japan has come out, what is the United States doing?

At this point, Japan still thought their message was not clear enough, so they continued to take action.

On December 6, the Chinese Navy conducted normal training near the Miyako Strait. China had already announced the details of this operation to prevent other countries from misunderstanding the intent of the exercise.

As the training proceeded smoothly, Japan suddenly sent fighter jets to harass the Chinese naval fleet.

To protect the safety of the fleet, China then dispatched fighter jets to escort the Japanese fighters, using a "intermittent radar lock" which clearly indicated the intention to drive them away. The Japanese aircraft then left.

China thought this matter was over, but later that evening, Koizumi Shinjiro claimed in a press conference that "China almost shot down the Japanese fighter jet."

China immediately refuted his false statements, stating, "China had informed everyone about the actions, and the Japanese fighter jet illegally entered the exercise area. It was reasonable and legal for China to escort it away."

Koizumi Shinjiro's behavior essentially aimed to seek the United States' public support, but the United States did not condemn China and even indirectly criticized Japan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Hagel delivered a public speech in California, stating, "Allies who slack off in collective defense will pay the price," which seemingly did not name anyone but actually pointed directly at Japan.

For a long time, the United States has continuously urged Japan to increase its defense spending as a percentage of GDP, but Japan's current defense spending is far from the U.S. expectations.

Hagel also emphasized, "The United States will put its own actual interests first," whose implied meaning is clear. If Japan wants the U.S. to support it, it must provide more real money to meet the U.S. requirements for military spending.

Hagel also openly stated, "The United States has no intention of changing the status quo in the Taiwan Strait," a position clearly conflicting with Japan's attempt to use the "Taiwan card" to attract U.S. support and escalate regional tensions.

After seeing the U.S. reaction, Japan realized something was wrong. In early December, the Japanese Defense Agency contacted China through the Sino-Japanese liaison mechanism to try to communicate about the so-called "radar illumination" incident.

But China refused to answer the hotline, which was a clear countermeasure against Japan. China had no longer given Japan any "diplomatic buffer" space.

By this time, Japan finally couldn't sit still. From December 7 to 10, Japan's ambassador to the United States, Yamada Shigefumi, visited Washington intensively to meet with U.S. senior officials.

Yamada's core request was for Trump to publicly support Japan, and he said, "We Japan are not afraid of China, what is the U.S. afraid of?"

The implication is that Japan has already shown a strong stance toward China, and the U.S. should stand behind its ally.

Facing Yamada's intensive lobbying, the U.S. kept a cold response, with only a deputy spokesperson from the State Department making a simple response on social media. Trump, the secretary of state, and other high-level officials did not make any statements.

The reason for this change is that there was a significant division within the U.S. Congress on whether to publicly support Japan.

Democratic Congressman Ami Bera and Gregory Meeks wrote a letter to the Trump administration, urging tariff reductions on Japan to support Japan.

They believe that Japan's current stance is a demonstration of loyalty to the U.S.-Japan alliance, and the United States should provide economic support and diplomatic backing.

However, the Republicans were not convinced. Several Republican congressmen explicitly opposed "further provoking Beijing" in closed-door meetings.

The internal divisions in the United States directly weakened the effectiveness of the Japanese ambassador's lobbying.

Japan didn't understand why the U.S. wouldn't support Japan. That's because they hadn't understood the logic of how the U.S. operates.

From "Taiwan is an issue for Japan" to "radar illumination," Takahashi repeatedly tried to tie Japan to the U.S. war machine.

But the core of U.S. policy toward China is to maintain its own interests in the Asia-Pacific region, not to be pushed around by Japan to confront any country.

For the United States, Japan is just a piece in its Asia-Pacific strategy. When Japan's provocative actions may lead to uncontrollable conflicts, the U.S. will decisively withdraw its support to avoid damaging its own interests.

But obviously, Takahashi and Japanese Ambassador Yamada Shigefumi didn't see this clearly.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/7582106517357249078/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.