Japan tells world to stand up to China or face consequences

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: AFP

Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) - Japan on Wednesday told the world it must stand up to an increasingly assertive China or risk a regional conflict with catastrophic economic consequences.

In a landmark speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued what amounted to an appeal for international support in a potentially explosive dispute with its superpower neighbour over islands in the East China Sea.

"We must restrain military expansion in Asia ... which otherwise could go unchecked," Abe told the annual meeting of global business and political leaders, which Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to attend on Friday.

"If peace and stability were shaken in Asia, the knock-on effect for the entire world would be enormous," Abe added.

"The dividend of growth in Asia must not be wasted on military expansion."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-appeals-world-restrain-39-military-expansion-39-173227774.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CYvGuBSIDkAdwXQtDMD

[Nay]

1. Good luck with that. The U.S.' greed has allowed China to grow into a true

monster. It's capitalism on steroids and, if pressed, will be perfectly willing to destroy whatever stands in its path.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. OR

We could work TOGETHER to resolve these territorial disputes.

Enough with the chess and the bluffing and the brinkmanship and the waving our dicks around thing. If you treat China like an enemy, sure, it's going to behave in ways that very much seem like enemy stuff. So, don't do that. Treat them like friends, that have grievances and desires of their own, and work WITH them to a solution.

[onehandle]

3. Too late. Kids born since 2000 better learn Chinese.

The rest of us are Soylent Green.

[1000words]

4. How goes the clean up of the world's worst environmental disaster?

The only "catastrophe" I'm seeing. Might want to make that the focus of your next speech.

[madrchsod]

7. which one?

china`s or japan`s? both countries are tied for having the worst environmental disasters.

[1000words]

8. Good point

Funny, how there's always time for saber rattling ...

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. Abe is starting to sound a bit like Netanyahu here, substituting "China" for "Iran"... *nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Abe compares tension between Tokyo and Beijing to that in Europe before First World War

Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe sent a shiver through the global diplomatic community today, by explicitly comparing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing to animosity between European powers in the run-up to the First World War.

Speaking on a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Abe said it was a “similar situation”, highlighting that China and Japan today, like Britain and Germany in 1914, have extensive trading links. He noted that in the case of Europe these trade links did not prevent an outbreak of hostilities.

Mr Abe also took the opportunity to cite rising Chinese military expenditure as a source of instability in the Pacific. He added that Japan was keen to strengthen its military ties with Washington.

Tensions have been running high over the past year between the two Asian economic giants over the disputed sovereignty of the uninhabited Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. Last November China established an air defence zone over the islands, which overlaps with Tokyo’s own, raising fears of a possible standoff.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japanese-premier-shinzo-abe-compares-tension-between-tokyo-and-beijing-to-that-in-europe-before-first-world-war-9078333.html

[NaturalHigh]

9. "We must restrain military expansion in Asia...

which otherwise could go unchecked,"

Well, I guess that's something Japan knows a little about.