The region of East Asia has plenty of problems when it comes to balancing the various military powers in the region, whether strong or just completely unstable. China is building up their military and throwing their weight around in order to secure more territory. North Korea is doing what they do best and making loud threats of nuclear retaliation against anyone who even looks at them wrong. Now, the United States may be getting further involved in the build-up, a move that has China a bit peeved.
The ministers of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) have been invited by the US Defense Secretary to have a sit-down next year. The subject on the table? Increased US military presence in the region, from aircraft to naval capability. The goal, as proposed by the secretary, is to help promote stability in the region. The end result may be the complete opposite.
After all, who is there to fight in the region? North Korea is there, but given the already strong presence of the US military in East Asia, there seems to be plenty enough to deal with them should the need arise. Thus, the main target of the defensive maneuver appears to be China. Despite US claims to the contrary, China and many experts are not convinced.
Given the recent war of words concerning cyber attacks from China affecting US and other Western businesses and governments, this is being seen as somewhat of an aggressive move by China. It’s true that there needs to be some counter-balance to the large country’s seeming need to be aggressive as opposed to using negotiations to settle its problems, but this is something that Asia will have to deal with on their own eventually. As I wrote about earlier this week, India and Japan are already taking the initiative in the matter, which looks to be a good first step. The US has a history of being unwelcome in Asia as far as military forces are concerned. This further attempt to push weapons into the region and demonstrate hegemony may end up backfiring in a big way and will likely cause huge tensions with China for years to come.
US Okinawa base photo courtesy of US Navy via Wikicommons
