Opinion | To honor word-of-the-year authenticity, Japan is unwise to join US' risky Taiwan-card games

By Augustus K. Yeung

INTRODUCTION

What is Webster's word of the year for 2023? Hint: Be true to yourself.

In an age of deepfakes and post-truth, as artificial intelligence rose, and world's most eminent business leader Elon Musk implicitly questioned the truthfulness and wisdom of Taiwan leaders, resisting the motherland China's sincere reunification attempts, Merriam Webster's word of the year for 2023 is "authentic," that is "being true to yourself" or the people that you lead.

Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authentic regime. Authenticity as artifice. Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on the dictionary company's site but were boosted to new heights throughout the year.

Editor at large Peter Sokolowski told AP in an exclusive interview. "We see in 2023 – a kind of crisis of authenticity," he said ahead of Monday's announcement of this year's word, "What we realize is that – when we question authenticity, we value it even more." (Source: MDT/AP)

Today, readers don't have to look up the dictionary for the meaning of the word authenticity because I do have a world event that prompts me to question Japan's "authenticity" of being true to the nation and its innocent people, dangerously but unnecessarily getting involved in US' Taiwan-card games.

Japan would be unwise to join U.S' Taiwan-card games.

It is no secret that the United States wants to bind Japan more tightly to its war bandwagon, as evidenced by the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024, which was passed by the US Senate at the end of last month. It requires the US secretary of defense to devise a plan for enhancing US security cooperation with Japan.

It is based on this provision that the US government has begun discussions with Japan as the latter moves to set up its first Permanent Joint Operational Headquarters for Japan Self-Defense Forces, according to recent Japanese media reports.

The new headquarters, which is expected to be functional by March 2025, would oversee operations of all three branches of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

The long-standing so-called sword and shield relationship between the US and Japan – in which the US with its strike capabilities is the spear and Japan is the sanctuary-providing shield – is deemed to be outdated. With Japan acquiring long-range strike capabilities such as Tomahawk cruise missiles and indicating that it is willing to get involved in military operations, the US wants to establish joint command elements in Japan to make the alliance more deeply integrated and operationally effective. The US military is therefore reportedly proposing to modify its own command structure in Japan to better coordinate the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

For years rightist politicians in Japan have pushed hard for the revision of the country's pacifist Constitution, especially changes to the war-renouncing Article 9, to make Japan a "normal nation" with a full-fledged military.

To justify the drastic policy change that has met with wide public opposition, Tokyo has cited external security threats – using Beijing's reunification cause with Taiwan island as an easy excuse. The provocative claim "an emergency for Taiwan is also an emergency for Japan" underscores a remarkable shift in Japan's stance on the most contentious issue.

Japan's policy towards China has become increasingly aggressive. It has announced plans to raise its defense spending to 2 percent of its GDP in five years, a dramatic increase for a nation that has adopted a defense-only stance since the end of World War ll.

Moreover, the armed forces of the US and Japan have already worked out draft plans for a joint anti-China operation in case of a possible war involving Taiwan. The latest discussions are just another fine-tuning of their collaborative efforts aimed at compromising the reunification of the Chinese nation for their own respective agenda.

The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Japanese politicians and leaders are necessarily putting their country's security at stake – speculating and betting on Washington's playing of the risky "Taiwan card". (Source: China Daily)

CONCLUSION

Japan has been and continues to be overpowered by the US since World War 2. But this does not mean that it has be doomed forever.

Recognizing, realizing, acknowledging and activating Japan's soft people-power may be a sensible way out, saving the Sakura nation – from being an eternal captive bird, the prisoner of war (POW) of the US, an overlord which has degenerated into a dangerous world-class war-machine – with a long history of human atrocities, preying on developing countries and their peoples on record.

The recent protests staged by the American Jews in the United States is an inspiration that comes to mind. American Jews by definition and tradition should swear their allegiance to Israel and the U.S., not Palestine and its people.

American higher education has developed to the point – where young people, especially intellectuals are now being guided not by patriotism. But by truth and an adamant sense of justice.

However mighty the U.S. military and the dark house Pentagon as the brain of the huge military complex, world history has unfailingly proved that social justice is our guide to ultimate human destiny.

Strategically, the peace-loving Japanese should rise, and gang up against any oppressive military forces, and work to free the great Sakura nation from US' dominance disguised as human bondage, saving it from – the danger of falling into America's Indo-Pacific trap of containing China, and aiding and abiding the U.S. to militarily stand in the way of China's road map of marching towards its peaceful unification with the island of Taiwan.

Climate change has caused Artic huge chunks of icebergs to move and drift, so do geopolitics. The mega trend of China and ASEAN moving ever closer is becoming more apparent as time goes on.

As some ASEAN inspirational leaders have pointed out, "America [on account of its military] is powerful in Asia, but China is the more 'relevant' power." For Japan, it pays to be "authentic".

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

 

To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com

Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:

Opinion | Trilateral summit of South Korea, Japan and China is a pantomime show directed by U.S.

Opinion | After APEC, China and America are working together to contain the Israel-Hamas conflict