Japan utilizes America, Australia, and India to lambast China during the Quad summit
Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan utilized the Quad summit with America, Australia, and India to lambast China. Indeed, this is a familiar tactic while all nations maintain strong economic ties with China despite recent tensions between America and China- and China and India respectively.
Suga failed to raise the issue of human rights during his visit to Indonesia about West Papua. Thus he is manipulating the human rights angle just like America does. Therefore, events concerning Hong Kong and Xinjiang are empty if the same nations ignore countless international human rights issues including the Chittagong Hill Tracts, West Papua, the Kurdish question, and how Dalits suffer in India.
The Quad summit involved Suga, President Joe Biden of America, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia. All nations agreed to support a major coronavirus vaccination effort in Southeast Asia. However, the sincerity is questionable. After all, these nations are seeking to play catch-up with the international vaccine programs of China and the Russian Federation.
India is also suffering memory loss because America and China have both boosted the armed forces of Pakistan for many decades. Hence, while it is understandable that India is concerned by China, it is still shortsighted to ignore the role of America in boosting the capabilities of the armed forces of Pakistan for countless decades.
The current Japanese government appears to learn little because the more Japan rebukes China internationally by seeking the support of fellow Quad members, praising European nations including the United Kingdom for sending a naval presence to the region, and so forth, the opposite happens. For China responds more strongly. Thus anti-China rhetoric in Japan led to China implementing a more robust coast guard law to the detriment of Japan.
Suga hopes the four Quad nations will promote and support “a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
NHK reports, the four Quad nations “Pledged to deepen their cooperation based on their shared values — support for the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, the peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values, and territorial integrity.”
Issues involving the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and prioritizing international law were agreed upon. Once more, this is ironic because America negates international law when it suits.
China and the Russian Federation will merely note that Japan is focused on dragging non-Northeast Asian nations into the geopolitical concerns of this region. Hence, given the trade angle of all nations with China, greater dialogue between all parties should be ramped up instead of sowing greater divisions.
Likewise, China should listen to regional nations who fear the ambitions of this nation in the South China Sea and other areas where borders overlap based on disputed border claims.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210313_08/
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