Opening Japan's Pandora's box will sabotage regional peace: China Daily editorial

Since Tokyo announced last year it would increase defense spending to 2 percent of its GDP over five years, it has been aggressively seeking to expand its military partnerships.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ongoing visits to five of the G7 countries represent a forceful stepping up of those endeavors. And as far as Tokyo is concerned a successful stepping up in light of the developments on Wednesday, which was a day of remarkable significance for Japan.

It was the day when Kishida and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak signed in London what the UK government has called the most important defense treaty between the UK and Japan since 1902. It was also the day when the visiting Japanese foreign and defense ministers signed in Washington "a vision of a modernized Alliance postured to prevail in a new era of strategic competition" with the US secretaries of state and defense.

Under the Japan-UK Reciprocal Access Agreement, the two countries will be able to deploy troops on each other's soil. While the joint statement the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee released on Wednesday took further strides in bolstering deterrence against what Washington and Tokyo describe as an impending China threat.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan boasted, "Japan is stepping up big time and doing so in lockstep with the United States, partners in the Indo-Pacific, and in Europe". The Japanese and US ministers touted the US-Japan alliance as "the cornerstone of regional peace, security, and prosperity". But obviously it will do the very opposite as it escalates geopolitical tensions in the region.

Wednesday's discussions will be followed by a meeting on Friday between President Joe Biden and Kishida at which they are expected to underscore the importance of the alliance to containing China.

With Japan adopting a new national security strategy that breaks with the country's self-defense postwar stance with the inclusion of strike capability, the two sides are expected to take the opportunity to rethink and update the structure and the mechanisms of the alliance to reflect that. This will facilitate the US' efforts to set the theater for war in the region, which the commander of US marine forces in Japan has revealed it is already busy doing.

Over the years, the Asia-Pacific has stayed together as one big family, defusing risks and overcoming challenges in solidarity. It is this that has enabled it to achieve the Asia-Pacific miracle. With the importance and standing of the Asia-Pacific region continuing to grow, the Western countries, led by the US, are determined that the region should serve to uphold their standing rather than stride to the center of the world stage on its own feet.

If the US, for its narrow ends of containing China, fails to heed the lessons of history and it indulges the militarism of Japan's right-wingers, it will bring mishap to the whole region and beyond. Washington should realize that Tokyo's smoldering ambitions mean it will by no means be content with it acting as a pointman of the US. After that Pandora's box is opened, the US too will pay a price for what emerges.