JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
CHINA DERMACATED AN AIR DEFENCE IDENTIFICATION zone at least a week ago. The zone includes Senkaku/Diaoyu islands for which the relationship between China and Japan has taken a serious nose-dive.
The territorial tensions between the two powers are discomforting, partly because these are world’s second largest economies. Japan, along with the United States declared that they do not recognize China’s demarcation. Seeing this not-so-big chaos, I wondered if this thing will ever get serious. Will it ever culminate into a war? I doubt.
I do not have detailed facts to back my doubts. But it’s important to point out that we now live in a truly global world. It has become so global that the US needs China while China needs the US too. I’m not sure how strong the ties are between China and Japan, but I’m certain that any war wouldn’t be in their interest.
Nobody has an appetite for wars anymore. This is supported by recent events in the United Nations Security Council – where China and Russia, along with many countries, have opposed every resolution likely to involve military action in Syria. Of course it was partly a political game, aimed at challenging the US.
Besides Syria, Barack Obama projected himself as an anti-war presidential candidate, and today he’s withdrawn American troops from Iraq and is winding down the war in Afghanistan. American citizens don’t want to hear anything with respect to wars, at least the polls show. Even European powers want nothing to do with foreign military commitments
My gut feeling is that this whole thing will cool down, but the two Asia’s powers, both being led by the US, need to resolve the issue. If they do not work on it, tensions will continue. On those continuous tensions, both China and Japan will lose. PM
© PHUMLANI M. MAJOZI