US: Okinawa base curbs China’s rising power

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton says Washington’s military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa is vital for regional stability.

Clinton made the remark upon her arrival in Hawaii for talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.

Clinton said Washington intends to serve as a stabilizing force against China’s rising power in Asia.

Diplomatic ties between Japan and the US have recently witnessed a low over a previously signed deal to relocate an American base on Okinawa.

Under the 2006 deal, the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station is to be shifted from an urban area to a less-crowded coastal region within the southern prefecture of the island by 2014.

But Japan’s new government, facing strong pressure from residents of Okinawa and the Socialists in the ruling coalition, including Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, is seeking for a pull-out of American forces from the island or even out of Japan altogether.

Hatoyama’s center-left government, which came to power in Japan in August after almost five decades of conservative rule, has pledged to reconsider agreements on the US military presence and adopt a less subservient position toward Washington.

Locals in Okinawa associate the US military presence on the island with crime and pollution, recalling the outrageous account of the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three American soldiers in 1995.

The island currently hosts more than half of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan.