Generals discuss China's defense against Japan
- By Wu Jin
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 14, 2012
Several Chinese military generals have voiced out against Japan’s infringement on China's sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands.
Despite their different tactics in the search for an appropriate solution, the generals- including Luo Yuan, the major general and executive deputy director of the China Strategic Culture Association, Peng Guanqian, major general and deputy secretary general of the Council for National Security Policy Studies and Zhang Shaozhong, major general and professor at the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University - have unanimously expressed the willingness to nip Japan’s attempts at violating China’s maritime territory in the bud.
All generals agreed that the Yoshihiko Noda cabinet’s current move to nationalize the Diaoyu Islands, poses a great threat to the international order that has been established since the end of World War II (WWII).
"In addition to the upgrade of the Defense Agency to Ministry status, Japan is also considering the upgrade of its self-defense forces to armies. All these factors make for a spate of blatant attempts at violating the restrictive regulations agreed upon after WWII,"stated Luo.
According to Luo, Japan is currently making a strategic move by deploying its forces from the country’s northern area to its southwestern parts, with China serving as its major target. This move signifies a change from a defensive military strategy to an offensive one.
Amid Japan’s continuous defiance of the post-war regulations, many of the generals believe legal prosecution within the international community would be the first step for China to take before resorting to actual military countermeasures.
"In accordance with the legislation of the People’s Republic of China on Territorial Waters and their Adjacent Zones, China is allowed to intercept, exam, detain and verdict those who are suspected of violating its maritime territories," said Zhang, "The law is ratified in line with international criteria, so why not put it into action?"
Zhang's legal process proposal is much echoed by Luo's opinion, who advised China to prosecute Japan and the United States in the International Court of Justice for their violations of the PRC laws.
According to Qiao Liang, the major general and professor from the Air Force Command Institute, the U.S. is the actual schemer behind the string of maritime territorial disputes. “The troubles it is making around China are merely attempts to hamper China's rapid development," he said.
But several generals also reckon that without rising nationalism and right-wing influence in Japan, a one-sided action from the U.S. alone would not have had much effect.
"The prolonged stigma of Japan’s defeat after WWII harbored by the country's right-wing, The lasting depression from the previous occupation and control from the U.S., the overwhelming agitation towards the protracted economic downturn and the resentment of China's rise, have all led Japan into this current chain of provocation," Peng analyzed.
"Therefore, China is not isolated in its fight against the post-war revenge of Japan's right-wing. We need to unite all the anti-fascism powers of the world in order to defend the justice that is being challenged by Japan now," he said.
The possibility of cooperation, domestically or internationally, has been stressed by the generals several times.
"It wouldn't inappropriate for the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang in Taiwan to launch a third time collaboration at the moment," said Zhao Fuying, lieutenant general and former political commissar of the South Sea Fleet. The previous two took place from 1924 to 1927 -- a stint covering China's Northern Expedition (1926-1927) headed by Sun Yat-sen in the name of national union which had been severely hindered by dissected warlords -- and from 1937 to 1945 during the eight-year anti-Japanese Aggression War, respectively.
The military experts also emphasized the possible grim consequences that would follow an escalation of tensions between China and Japan.
"Conflicts caused by any maritime territorial disputes can’t be fully put aside," said Xu Guangyu, major general and member of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, “we need to fully prepare for any possible outcome, even if an overall outbreak of war is not likely to be on the cards.
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