Sound of Biden's War Drum is getting louder threatening Korea and China with the support of Japan

Dr. Joseph H. Chung, Ph.D. (정희수) Professor of Economics, Quebec University in Montreal

(지난 호에 이어)

2. Recruitment of Proxy War Soldiers

The Japan-Korea bilateral military alliance is intended to recruit proxy-war soldiers. As pointed above, if Washington decides to attack North Korea, the ROK army and the Japanese army are likely to fight for the hegemony of Washington and for Japan's re-conquest of Korea.

What is more important for Biden is the recruitment of soldiers to fight against Chinese army in Taiwan-China war. The same ROK soldiers and the Japanese soldiers are expected to do the shooting for the Washington. It is possible that Washington would not join the shooting match; it will just provide more weapons as it is doing in the Ukraine-Russia war.

One puzzling aspect of this dangerous security dynamics of East Asia initiated by Washington is the "harakiri"-security strategy of the pro-Japan conservative South Korean government led by Yoon.

South Korea's participation in the attack against North Korea will bring nothing positive. In fact, millions of South Koreans may lose their lives and its economy will be ruined.

Furthermore, the participation of the Japanese army in this attack against North Korea could end up with permanent presence of Japanese military on the Korea soil and even the 1910 treacherous drama of annexation of Korea with Japan may repeat itself. It is likely that the pro-Japan conservative Koreans will support it like their ancestors did in 1910.

This may sound absurd. Is it? Do not forget one thing. The core of the pro-Japan South Koreans is composed of the descendents of former Korea elite who collaborated with the Japanese colonial government and those Japanese who did not return to Japan to protect their wealth and adopted Korean names to hide their identity. To be frank, this group is more Japanese than being Korean.

Moreover, the participation of South Korean army in the Taiwan-China war would create a situation in which South Korea will have to endure China's trade reprisal and even direct military bombardment of the Korean soil.

About a quarter of South Korean exports go to China. A simple deployment few years ago of THAAD near Seoul made South Korean to pay heavy price in terms of loss of tourist income, the campaign of "No Korean Products" in China, the forced closing of Korean companies in China and other forms of retaliation. The U.S. cannot and will not compensate for such huge loss.

For Korea, only wise way of surviving in the Sino-American hegemonic war is to be neutral and maintain friendly relations with both the U.S. and China. This is what Moon Jae-in did. Alas, Yoon blew away what Moon has accomplished. This is tragic, indeed.

The liberal government of Moon Jae-in was able to maintain reasonable good relation with both super powers. Korea being the 10th global economic power and the 6th military power could bargain to Korea's advantage with Beijing and Washington.

Now, as for Japan, the Japanese imperialist conservatives led by Shinzo Abe are more than happy to be legionnaire in the Taiwan-China war. For Abe and his friends, the Taiwan-China war can be a God-given gift.

Now, Shinzo Abe is no more but his long dark shadow will cover Japan for years to come.

Remember that the Abe group has the dream of restoring the might and the glory of pre-1945 Japan. This group denies Japan' surrender in 1945; it does not accept the Tokyo War Criminal Court. It has the illusion of being the predestined ruler of the world.

To realize its dream, Japan has to destroy China. To destroy China, Japan needs regular army, not the self-defence army. To do this, Japan has to modify the 1948 Peace Constitution, especially the controversial Article 9. However, the materialization of Abe's dream needs Biden's support.

Biden is aware of the danger that Japanese have not forgotten the Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The Americans do remember the massacre of Pearl Harbour. It is more than possible that Biden does not want see Japan too powerful. But to kill China, Biden needs military Japan.

Biden's declaration of military intervention in the Taiwan-China war was intended to recruit the Japanese army as proxy army fighting for the U.S. The same goes for the ROK army.

For Biden, the Japanese army is the best legionnaire to fight against China. To force China to attack the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands or Taiwan, Japan might provoke incidences leading to the shooting war. In fact, Japan is good at it.

The Mukden incidence in Manchuria in 1931 leading to Japanese invasion in Manchuria and the Marco Polo Bridge incidence provoking all out war of China in 1937 started because of faked incidences prepared by the Japanese army.

In Short, Biden did well in recruiting the armed forces of the two major military powers in the region as legionnaires in the possible Taiwan-China proxy war.

In addition to the recruitment of the two military powers, Korea and Japan, Biden was successful in producing another China containment organization comprising 13 countries through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).

This is composed of 7 ASEAN member countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei) and the U.S., India, Japan, ROK, Australia, New Zealand.

The purpose of this new organization is the China containment. The IPEF gives itself four areas regional cooperation including realignment of the production chain, renewable energy, trade and fight against corruption. However, the ultimate role is China containment intensified by the restriction of exchanges of goods, ideas and services especially exchange of technology.

Most of the Korea experts in trade and international politics argue that this could bring disaster to Korea due to coming retaliation on the part of China.

Japan looks very excited to be a part of IPEF, for it will provide opportunities to play leadership role with help of ROK as cheer leader.

The assurance of investments of USD 27 billion in the U.S. by the Samsung and the Hyundai is a big gain for Biden. And these investments will strengthen America's competitiveness in electric cars and semi-conductor in the competition with China. They will be a part of China containment policy of Washington. (다음 호에 계속)

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