Dynamic Asia needs US to reshape anachronistic policy
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E-mail Xinhua, April 23, 2014
The two heavyweights' dedication to cultivating a new type of major-country relations is strategically heartening, but Washington needs to prop up its promise with action.
The least it can do is refrain from fanning the fabricated "China threat" theory and thrusting itself unfairly into territorial and maritime disputes between China and some of its neighbors.
In parallel, the United States should reappraise its anachronisitic hegemonic alliance system and stop pampering its chums like Japan and the Philippines that have been igniting regional tensions with provocative moves.
Emboldened -- at least accompanied -- by the U.S. refocusing on Asia, Tokyo and Manila have become increasingly assertive and pugnacious in handling their rows with Beijing in East and South China Seas.
In a stark sign of the waywardness of Washington's spoilt allies, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an alarming number of other senior politicians have paid tribute over the past days to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 convicted Class-A WWII war criminals among Japan's war dead.
The offerings and visits, outrageous to China, South Korea and other victims of militarist Japan, came just on the eve of Obama's arrival, although his administration has explicitly urged Tokyo to mend its fences.
The slap in Obama's face should be smart enough to jerk Washington out of illusion and back to reality. Such side effects of its current modus operandi on Asia are what the United States really has to mind and contain.
It is high time that Obama sent a clear message to Asia and the world: He will live up to his self-proclaimed title as "America's first Pacific President" by reshaping his country into a responsible and constructive player in the Asia-Pacific region.
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