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Sunday, September 02, 2007

China/Japan Build Defence Ties

The West has always assumed that Japan would be an ally, or at least neutral in any confrontation with Russia and China.

Soviet defector and former high ranking KGB officer Anatoliy Golitsyn predicted some years ago that Russia and China would try to draw Japan into their sphere of influence, before striking out at what's left of the West.

From the Communist Party of China website


Visiting Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan (L) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during their meeting in Tokyo, August 30, 2007.

China and Japan vowed Thursday to continue top-level defense exchanges and enhance cooperation in security consultation, training and other military fields, a joint press communique said.

The communique was signed while Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan is paying an official good-will visit to Japan, which started on Wednesday. It was the first visit to Japan for a Chinese defense minister since 1998.

According to the agreements reached during his visit, Cao has invited his Japanese counterpart Masahiko Komura to visit China in2008 at both sides' convenience.

China and Japan will continue sticking to the principles as stated in the three key political documents and promote mutual confidence building and understanding, the communique said.

The two sides will deepen friendship and contribute to the construction of strategic and mutually beneficial relations and the peace, stability and development of Asia and the world, it said.

The two countries also agreed to achieve at an early date the visits between the Chief of staff of the Joint Staff Office of the Self Defense Forces' and the Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army.

To mark the 35th anniversary of the normalization of the bilateral diplomatic ties, Japan has invited Chinese navy warship to call in November or December this year, the communique said. China will also invite Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force to call in China.

During his four-day visit, which will end on Sept. 2, the Chinese defense minister held talks with his counterpart Masahiko Komura, met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura. Cao also made a speech on China's defense policy and military exchanges between China and Japan.

The joint press communique also noted that China and Japan will continue defense and security consultations, work to set up marine contacting mechanism to maintain peace in the East China Sea, strengthen military exchanges in medical, academic, cultural and sports fields, and promote personnel training and exchange.

3 Comments:

Blogger mah29001 said...

I believe I reported this on my blog a day ago. Japan is certainly practicing a form of Finlandization isn't it? Just like how the likes of South Korea often appeases its Stalinist Northern counterpart.

Not only that, but Japan itself also has affiliations with Iran, where many Japanese "anti-nuke"/"pro-disarmament" groups complained about a Japanese Defense Minister promoting pro-American/anti-ImperialJapanese views justifying the dropping of the two nukes ending the war. But then those very same groups never complain about Japan's close association with Iran or those that keep the Mullahs afloat in Beijing.

5:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This report from the Financial Times (September 3rd) may interest New Zealers....

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American ­officials.

The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defence secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack.

Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People’s Liberation Army.

One senior US official said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origins of the attack. Another person familiar with the event said there was a “very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty” that the PLA was responsible.

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, raised reports of Chinese infiltration of German government computers with Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, in a visit to Beijing ...

The PLA regularly probes US military networks ... but US officials said the penetration in June raised concerns to a new level because of fears that China had shown it could disrupt systems at critical times.

A former official said the PLA had penetrated the networks of US defence companies and think-tanks.

4:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Too many chinese I say

2:58 PM  

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