The Great Game

Washington is working to put Japan at the center of its vision of Asia, at a time when North Korea may soon be labeled a nuclear state.

American diplomats are also more explicitly benchmarking concerns about China, including the nation's rapid military rise, and its unclear internal politics.

Indeed, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, stood in Tokyo less than 24 hours after the passing of George Kennan, the fabled US architect of Soviet containment, and articulated a new, modified, and arguably "friendly" form of containment of China, the world's largest remaining communist power.

Describing the "rise of China" as a "new factor in global politics," Ms. Rice stated that while the US regards China as a partner and desires its prosperity, that China's political direction is unknown. The "strategic context" in Asia demands that the US foster stronger ties with Japan, South Korea, and India - even while encouraging greater trade and cooperation with Beijing, Rice explained.

"The internal evolution of China is still undefined," Rice told an audience at Sophia University in Tokyo. "Issues of freedom of religion, human rights ... Taiwan ... are matters of concern that could take a wrong turn ... and ... we want to push, prod, and persuade China on a positive course."

Analysts were quick to note that geographically, alliances with South Korea, Japan, and India appear to "encircle China," as one source noted. Rice herself stated that "these alliances are not against China, but are 'values-based relationships' " among states that have already chosen to be democratic and open.

Japan will be the umbrella for the US Asian presence since the US and Japan have "already chosen" a common set of values and understandings, Rice said.

The White House has in recent months expressed appreciation that Japan readily sent troops to Iraq. Japan recently altered its Constitution to allow its military, the world's fourth largest, to participate in "out of area" missions. In coming months, Pentagon sources say, US and Japanese officials will discuss enhancing command and control centers in Japan, missile defense, and deployment of forces, including a possible further drawdown of US forces in Korea. These developments take place just months after official defense papers in Tokyo for the first time explicitly pointed to China as a "threat." The US now unambiguously supports a UN Security Council seat for Japan.

"The US is moving to restructure the alliance with Japan, to make it an enhanced maritime alliance," says Carl Baker of the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. "At the same time, both the US and Japan have begun to more explicitly state concerns about China. What had been implicit is now more explicit." (More)