DAWN Archive: US fear of China

China security concern: US
By Tahir Mirza

WASHINGTON. June 2: Two senior US foreign policy and defence officials are reported to have told a visiting delegation of Japan’s ruling coalition parties on Friday that Washington views China as the biggest security concern for the United States in Asia and urged Japan to work closely on security issues.

According to the Japanese Kyodo news agency, Taku Yamasaki, secretary-general of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage outlined the US concern in separate meetings with the three secretaries-general of the ruling Japanese coalition.

The three have been in Washington since Wednesday for talks with senior Bush administration officials.

Outlining the political instability in Asia, Mr Armitage, who recently visited India, told the Japanese visitors that Asia was a continent where people in the world could wake up in the morning and find countries in war, according to Mr Yamasaki.

Mr Yamasaki said Mr Armitage cited the Korean peninsula, China, Indonesia, India and Pakistan as potential sources of military conflicts.

Mr Yamasaki told Japanese reporters both Mr Armitage and Mr Wolfowitz named China as the biggest source of security concern to the US, and said the Bush administration planned to shift the focus of its strategic planning from Europe to Asia as part of a review of American military policy.

The policy is now undergoing a thorough review, and a full-scale meeting was due to be held on Saturday between Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and military chiefs.

Collective self-defence arrangements, rather than beefing up US military forces abroad, is said to be one of the elements of the policy review, but Mr Yamasaki said he told Mr Wolfowitz that Japan would not be able to take part in such arrangements – such as coming to US aid in a military conflict in Asia – without a revision of the Japanese constitution, which bans the use of armed forces to resolve international conflicts.

Originally published in Daily DAWN newspaper's June 3, 2001 issue.