Who are the new Japanese?

At the same time, China's dramatic ascent in all aspects of its national power has surprised even the most optimistic observers. The World Bank estimates that China will take the helm of the largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity this year. No one can reasonably expect China not to seek to advance and protect its interests in the region.

So we have a situation in which an incumbent hegemon is retrenching and a fast rising new power is making its presence felt. And there are no established rules to manage this process.

Abe's proposal? Outsource it all to us - the New Japanese!

At the moment, perhaps in their desire to reduce their hard commitments to the region but not let China take their place as the new hegemon, the US seems to be enthusiastically entertaining the proposition. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel backed Japan unreservedly in his speech the next day.

But it is a bad idea. In seeking to single out China as the enemy and thereby putting one of the twin pillars of Asian success in binary opposition to a regional alliance to be led by Japan, Abe and his US backers are playing with fire.

Japan, with declining demographics and a stagnant economy, is in fear of a powerful China. That fear would be magnified by such an alliance of convenience. China, whose people have endured immeasurable sufferings at the hands of the Japanese through multiple generations, would have its national honor challenged and its reactions would be amplified.

The common narrative presented by many is that China is a challenger of the status quo. That is of course true to some extent, as the status quo cannot go on forever with qualitative changes to the US' interests and China's position. But Japan's revisionist approach to both history and the present poses a real threat to the prospects of an evolution of the status quo that could lead to a peaceful outcome.

In so aggressively seeking to reemerge as a military power Japan is dangerously removing a key legal underpinning of the entire post World War II regional architecture. China, and many other Asian nations, will not consent to that revision.

Abe's claim to want to lead an Asia based on rule of law in resolving any and all disputes is flatly disingenuous. The entire world knows and sees the dangerous territorial dispute that is being played out between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands. Yet, Japan vehemently denies even the existence of dispute. When asked by a member of the audience after his speech about the dispute, Abe reaffirmed Japan's position - there is no dispute. And of course, when one refuses to recognize a dispute, rule of law is irrelevant.

Furthermore, Japan's enormous historical baggage and its steadfast refusal to live up to it make it impossible for it to effectively play Foxconn to the US Apple in Asian security. Merely two generations ago, Japan invaded China, Korea, and many South East Asian countries and massacred their peoples. In Nanjing alone, the Japanese Imperial Army slaughtered tens of thousands of men, women, and children in a matter of days.

Before the US signs an outsourcing contract with Tokyo, it would be well advised to listen carefully to Abe's Shangri-La speech. In his concluding remarks, he said that the New Japanese are really no different from their parents and grandparents in seeking to contribute to the world. For every Chinese and every Korean, that begs the question: Just who were those grandfathers Abe was so proudly referring to?

The author is a venture capitalist and political scientist in Shanghai. www.chinausfocus.com

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