Unequally yoked

Via Roubini, I became aware of an interesting issue that’s simmering in Asia. You may know that American soldiers are about as popular in Okinawa as they were in 1945. Aside from the problem common to quartering troops of providing them sexual outlets, which has in the past led to several anti-American explosions, US facilities create headaches for an area that has developed rapidly since the facilities were built. The Japanese would like all American troops off Okinawa. The US is refusing to go, creating a very awkward situation between ostensible allies. First, John Pomfret, WaPo:

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada presented U.S. Ambassador John V. Roos with a proposal to settle the dispute, telling him that Japan was moving toward accepting significant parts of a 2006 deal to move the Futenma air station from the center of a city of 92,000 to a less populated part of Okinawa, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue….

The U.S. alliance with Japan is the centerpiece of American policy in Asia and has been a foundation of security in the region for decades. As the alliance has wavered, concern has spread across the region, with officials from South Korea to Australia expressing worries about the future of the U.S. security role.

The meeting Friday followed a brief and blunt tete-a-tete between President Obama and Hatoyama on April 12 during the prime minister’s visit to Washington for the Nuclear Security Summit. During the 10-minute encounter, Obama told Hatoyama that the two countries were “running out of time” and asked him whether he could be trusted. Japanese officials were so taken aback by the toughness of Obama’s tone that they did not draw up a written record of the words exchanged between the two leaders, sources said.

Next, Edward Wong, NYT:

The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, military officials and analysts say. ..

China’s naval ambitions are being felt, too, in recent muscle flexing with the United States: in March, Chinese officials told senior American officials privately that China would brook no foreign interference in its territorial issues in the South China Sea, said a senior American official involved in China policy….

Japan is anxious, too. Its defense minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, said in mid-April that two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers were spotted on April 10 heading between two Japanese islands [at a guess, Miyakojima and Kume, off Shanghai] en route to the Pacific, the first time such a large Chinese flotilla had been seen so close to Japan. When two Japanese destroyers began following the Chinese ships, a Chinese helicopter flew within 300 feet of one of the destroyers, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.

If the Chinese wanted to guarantee an American presence in Japan, sending warships through Japan’s territorial waters without pre-agreement probably accomplished that. On the other hand, if Obama wanted to guarantee that the Japanese government would change hands, asking the prime minister if he could be trusted, probably achieved that.