US-Japan ties in focus after boat row

Last week, when the China-Japan dispute over the detention of the captain of a Chinese fishing trawler was hanging fire, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that American efforts to improve relations with China must “go through Tokyo” because Japan was vital to the United States. 
We sometimes of late have been too quick to focus on one relationship which is critically important,” he said, evidently referring to China and implying that the relationship with Japan had been neglected.
Renewed tension with Beijing over disputed islands claimed by both China and Japan has had the effect of moving Japan and the United States closer together.
President Barack Obama and Premier Naoto Kan on Friday discussed the maritime issue, which involved islands claimed by both Japan and China, and the two “agreed to consult closely on such issues.”
Other American officials were even more candid. Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said he had been told by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the disputed Senkaku, or Diaoyu, islands come under the protection of the U.S.-Japan security treaty.
President Barack Obama and Premier Naoto Kan on Friday discussed the maritime issue, which involved islands claimed by both Japan and China, and the two “agreed to consult closely on such issues.”
Other American officials were even more candid. Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said he had been told by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the disputed Senkaku, or Diaoyu, islands come under the protection of the U.S.-Japan security treaty.
And Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, also talking about the islands, declared: “We would fulfill our alliance responsibilities.”
Vice President Biden's remarks clearly reflected changing thinking within the Obama administration, which when it assumed office last year sought China's cooperation on virtually all global issues — leading to speculation that a G2 was in the making — and bent over backward not to provoke China. As a result, no arms sales to Taiwan were announced and a meeting with the Dalai Lama was postponed until after Obama's visit to China in November.
Japan, too, had a very different attitude toward China last year. When the Democratic Party of Japan became the ruling party, then Premier Yukio Hatoyama wanted his country to be more assertive vis-a-vis the United States and to focus more on China-dominated East Asia as “Japan's basic sphere of being.”
Since then, both the United States and Japan have had to reassess their position. The United States saw that postponing Taiwan arms sales and a Dalai Lama meeting did not win Washington any points with China.
In fact, when those deferred events eventually occurred, Beijing responded with greater fury than before, making it clear that it expects the United States to behave differently now that China had a more important place in the world.
China has been much more assertive since its perception that the United States had been gravely weakened by the global financial crisis in 2008.
More at:http://chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/frank-ching/2010/09/29/274328/US-Japan-ties.htm

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