China-Japan Island row spells disaster for Washington and Tokyo

Both Japan and the United States, despite Washington’s short term gains through arms sales, will ultimately suffer from the dispute between Japan and China over the Diaoyu Islands, says an analyst.

The comment comes as Japan and China have long been in a dispute over the sovereignty of a group of islands in the East China Sea, which would give the owner exclusive oil, mineral and fishing rights in the surrounding waters.

The disputed islands are known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. On December 15, China presented the United Nations with detailed assertion as to its sovereignty over the islands.

Press TV has conducted an interview with writer and political analyst, Linh Dinh, from Philadelphia to further discuss the issue. He is joined by London-based political commentator, Chris Bambery and Mike Billington with the Executive Intelligence Review weekly magazine from Arlington, Virginia. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The problem on these Islands keeps escalating; the Japanese government summoned China’s envoy to Tokyo to protest the presence of these Chinese ships in waters around the disputed Islands that’s claimed by both nations. Aren’t the islands just part of the story?

Dinh: Well, this is very baffling because it seems to be a miscalculation by both the Japanese and the Americans because in the long term what can they possibly gain by this? China is Japan’s biggest market and already Japanese exports are decreasing since this dispute started. So the Japanese are already hurting and the Chinese are the biggest lenders to the US.

So in a sense Americans are dependent on Chinese money to keep on functioning and so many American companies have relocated to China that they need that arrangement between China/US to be stable. If anything becomes disrupted then the US corporations will also suffer. So what can they possibly gain by this?

I can see that what they are trying to do to China is what they have done with Russia by surrounding Russia with these missiles. So they are trying the same tactic with China and any kind of an arms raise benefits the USA because the USA is the biggest arm dealer but in the long run I can only see disaster for both Japan and the USA.

Press TV: Well, Linh Dinh quite a mouthful there that Mike Billington threw out. Do you agree with some of the statements that he made there regarding the stances by the different countries in particular Britain being the one that perhaps is causing it; with the US following into this confrontation?

Dinh: Well, I would only agree with bankers being behind this as far as they are above any kind of national loyalty. I wouldn’t call it they’re serving British interests so much as they’re serving their own interest.

So there is a Wall Street/ City of London nexus; so I would agree with that totally; that they are serving their own interests and not American or British interests. They tend to benefit from wars and they are themselves in trouble; so this is one of their moves but I would not agree that it is necessarily serving British interests.

Press TV: Well, Linh Dinh, it’s a pretty bleak picture there that Mike Billington has painted but you know there is some truth to… well when we look at for example these contractors, Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop and Raytheon; they’re the ones that are going to reap the benefits of what is in the works of these huge arm sales that’s going to happen. Do you agree with this scenario?

I mean when we look at on the other hand the economies; how they would suffer, Japan’s economy and other Asian nations’ economies in terms of their economic relationship with China. Do you foresee all of this happening in terms with this scenario that Mike Bilington has painted?

Dinh:
Yes, I agree that the US government is the most dangerous player globally right now. I would go further not just impeach Obama but to change the entire system because Obama is merely a figure head if we get rid of him we get another guy who will act just the same.

So as the US economy declines further and it is collapsing fairly rapidly the US might even act more dangerously, you know. You would think that it would become saner and retreat militarily just to protect itself domestically but it might even act more recklessly.

So we are living in very dangerous times right now but on the slightly more positive side the Asian allies of the USA are hedging their bets somewhat because Obama went to Cambodia recently to try to insert himself into the economic agreement that they were about to sign and that agreement was signed by every one of the major Asian countries also including Australia and of course Japan but the US was prevented from being a part of it.

So these Asian countries know that they must make peace with China, must accommodate China for the long term although they dread China also as a potential bully and as a historical bully. So although they fear China and that’s why they are still looking to the US for some kind of protection, they know that the ultimate future is with China.