Tokyo-Peking axis

Press, 16 May 1985, Page 13

Tokyo-Peking axis

China and Japan are making rapid strides towards a disguised form of military alliance to counter what both perceive as the Soviet Union’s “threat” to Asian security.

The defence exchanges are being cloaked in secrecy to defuse Soviet “paranoia” over a Tokyo-Peking axis and to protect Deng Xiaoping’s government from Leftist accusations of trading with Japanese “militarism.”

Japan is seeking China’s apfiroval for warships of its navy “Maritime Self-Defence Force”) to make port calls, similar to the permission granted to the Pentagon for United States Navy ships to call at Shanghai. Defence sources in Tokyo say China’s granting of permission to Japan is a “formality.” Defence co-operation between the two Asian powers has been pending since the Chinese Defence Minister Zhang Aiping visited Japan in July last year. Secret meetings took place that summer in Peking between Japanese embassy military staff and Chinese intelligence officials on a wide range of strategic issues of common interest — Soviet military

expansion and the deployment of SS2O missiles in the Far East; the Soviet navy build-up at the old United States base of Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam; Hanoi’s invasion of Kampuchea; the balance of forces in Korea.

These were followed by “inspection” tours by Chinese and Japanese army officers of each others’ forces.

Contacts were stepped up last month by a 10-day visit to Japan by Wu Xiuquan, former No. 2 of the People’s Liberation Army and now director of the Peking Institute for International Strategic Studies. Wu, who met Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, is a fervent advocate of a Japanese defence build-up.

The rationale for these exchanges is gradually becoming more explicit. Haruo Natsume, deputy director of the Japanese Defence Agency, will visit China this month for talks with Defence Minister Zhang Aiping and P.L.A. officers on “strategy, the military situation in Asia, and the Soviet military build up in the F.E. regions.” according to a Government release.

Military swaps between the two

countries are curious only if seen in ideological terms (though even here China’s deep “red” hue is becoming increasingly pink.) Peking, Tokyo, and the United States have a common bond in wanting to contain Soviet military expansion. In Peking, this allows a nominally “Communist” regime to press for increased Japanese military commitment.

From Tokyo’s viewpoint, the need is equally Machiavellian: to forestall a convergence of Peking with Moscow.

Former Japanese Foreign Minister Sunao Sunoda gave the bluntest explanation of this realpolitik in 1981: “Sino-Soviet rapprochement would be a nightmare to the Western world. To prevent it, the Western world should positively cooperate in China’s economic modernisation and integrate China into the Western world’s economic structure. Japan is spearheading that effort.”

Since Sunoda’s speech, Japan has committed itself to giving China a staggering 524 billion in low interest credit from 1984-1992. —

Copyright, London Observer Service.