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Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 20th National Congress of China’s ruling Communist Party in Beijing, Oct. 16.
Photo:
Yao Dawei/Xinhua/Associated Press
No one has done more for NATO than
Vladimir Putin,
and
Xi Jinping
is doing something similar for democracies in the Asia-Pacific. On Saturday Japanese Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida
and Australian PM
Anthony Albanese
will meet in Perth to sign a new security pact to share information about China and other military intelligence.
The two countries have long had a friendly relationship, and the new agreement updates a 2007 pact. But China’s militarization of islands in the South China Sea and threats against Taiwan are bringing the two even closer on defense matters.
Given events in “the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, there is no denying that the security environment has become increasingly difficult and challenging,” Japanese ambassador to Australia
Shingo Yamagami
told the Guardian Australia. “That is why we need to come up with an upgraded self-defense cooperation declaration in order to increase deterrence.”
The new agreement, he added in an interview with the Australian, would be “epoch making” and “will outline the direction of Australia/Japan defense cooperation for the next 10 years.”
In August Japan protested when Chinese military exercises sent five missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone. The exercises, which were run as a show of bluster two days after House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
visited Taiwan, were a reminder that a Chinese takeover of the islands would damage Japanese security.
China has used trade as a weapon against Australia after former Prime Minister
Scott Morrison
sought an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Australia is also rightly worried by China’s recent efforts to forge a security relationship with Solomon Islands with an eye to building a possible military base or bases in the Pacific.
Beijing typically blames the U.S. for orchestrating a bloc against China, but Pacific nations that favor stability and democracy don’t need convincing. Mr. Xi’s actions are building the coalition to deter China.
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