[Shadow Kira01]

Japan Urges ASEAN to Include US

Japanese spokesman Kazuo Kodama said the prime minister told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that the Japan-U.S. alliance was the fundamental cornerstone of Japan's diplomatic policy.

"At the same time, he said, he now upholds a long-term vision of establishing an East Asia Community in accordance with the open regionalism," said Kazuo Kodama. "He very much intends to promote intra-regional cooperation in east Asia."

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Originally Posted by LynnieS

I see the "protection" of Taiwan as honoring the U.S.'s commitment to the country. The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 essentially recognized Taiwan as a country and that the U.S. will "officially" frown upon any non-peaceful attempts on Taiwan as being a threat to the region.

And why is Okinawa responsible for hosting an American military base and dishing out the sympathy budget for the sake of a Chinese rogue province? More over, if Taiwan needs the protection so badly, the Okinawan military facility should be relocated over to Taiwan where their people can experience noise pollution and also enjoy dishing out the sympathy budget as this is entirely irrelevant to Okinawa and the Okinawans.

Why the U.S. does not base troops in Taiwan itself is odd. I can only think that it does not want to PO China more so instead, it makes Japan (an officially recognized country in the UN and an important economic influence in the region/world) unhappy?? Even if Japan forgets the insult, which I really doubt, its leaders, if forced out by the voters, will be replaced by those taking on a harder stance, IMHO. The U.S. is just delaying and worsening the outcome - unless it can actually convince the Okinawa people its troops are now better behaved.

The problem is not that the American soldiers are doing bad things over there; in fact, that is the action of the minority but instead.. It is the sight of American soldiers that people greatly despised. You can almost compare this to the sight of Muslims on American soil or Americans in the Middle East. Regardless of what they try to do now, most people do hope that they relocate their military base over to Guam where everyone will be happy aside from the American government who needs to back down on that firm stance of imperialism along with dishing out fundings.

As for China's holding U.S. debt, yes, but Japan is still the 2nd biggest holder. US$731 billion by Japan vs US$797 billion by China. How that will change next week, the week of 26 October (when the Treasury is looking to sell US$180 billion in debt (just in one week!?!)), no idea.

This is totally irrelevant as that the United States do realize that Japan would not sell their treasury debt just to mess with their economy as that it is shared. If the American economy takes a toll, the Japanese economy will go down it. However, if China pulls it off, they don't seem to care much which is where the problem exists. This prevents the United States from moving their base over to Taiwan like they claim. However.. What does this have anything to do with Guam!?