US should take a genuinely neutral stance in Diaoyu Islands dispute if it wants to improve military ties with China

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's three-day visit to China was part of efforts to bolster military-to-military ties with China and avoid the kind of on-again, off-again relationship they have had in the past.

During his first trip to China as the US defense secretary, Panetta talked with Defense Minister Liang Guanglie and other top Chinese officials on issues of common concern. He also visited the headquarters of China's North Sea Fleet. In a move to further strengthen military ties with China, Panetta said the US will invite a Chinese warship to participate in the 2014 Rim of the Pacific exercises, the biennial US-sponsored large-scale naval exercises that involve more than 20 countries.

Due to a lack of mutual trust, military ties are usually the first to suffer when Sino-US relations encounter difficulties. Thus, maintaining high-level visits, like Panetta's just-concluded trip, will play a positive role in improving military ties through promoting better communication and enhancing mutual trust. During his visit to the US in January 2011, President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart Barack Obama agreed to establish a cooperative partnership of mutual respect and mutual benefit, a consensus that was reaffirmed by the two countries during Vice-President Xi Jinping's visit to the US in February.

The eastward shift of the US' strategic focus in recent years has resulted in some strategic chaos in the Asia-Pacific region and caused controversy and misgivings among countries in the region. And although some senior US officials, including Panetta, have said such a strategy is not targeted at specific countries, the Obama administration has never clarified the new strategy. Some of the activities launched or accelerated by the US, including its regular military exercises with Asian allies in the Asia-Pacific region following the unveiling of its Asia-Pacific strategy, bear the hallmarks of a "China containment" policy.

To ease China's misgivings toward the readjusted US global strategy, Panetta, during his meetings with Chinese leaders, repeated his stance that China and the US are both Pacific powers that share common concerns. He also said that the eastward shift of the US' strategic focus is aimed at building ties with China and consolidating bilateral military links.

However, Washington's attitude toward security, territorial disputes and economic issues in the Asia-Pacific region has sent the opposite message.

The US' attitude toward the dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands has aggravated China's misgivings toward Washington's Asia-Pacific strategy. The dispute was ignited by Japan following its "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands, a move that breached the consensus China and Japan reached during their decision to set up bilateral diplomatic ties and a peace treaty they signed in 1978.

The Diaoyu Islands have been China's territory for more than 400 years. Japan seized the islands following China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, but according to the Cairo Declaration of 1943 and the Potsdam Declaration of 1945, the Diaoyu Islands were returned to China.

Japan gained de facto control of the Diaoyu Islands as a result of a treaty it signed with the US in San Francisco in 1951 in the absence of China. The treaty illegally assigned the Diaoyu Islands and other islets to the Liu Chiu Islands, which were then under the US' control. And after they signed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement in 1971, the US handed over control of the Diaoyu Islands, as part of the Liu Chiu Islands, to Japan.

The Japanese government's latest "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands is a reflection of its attempt to negate the validity of the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration and its desire to reverse the terms of its surrender at the end of World War II.

Meanwhile, despite its announcement that it will not take sides in the Diaoyu Islands dispute, the US has stated on several occasions that the security treaty between the US and Japan covers the islands. However, as a bilateral arrangement with Japan, it is illegal and invalid for Washington to apply its security pact with Japan to the disputed territory. Such a stance at such a sensitive time only emboldens Tokyo in its disputes with Beijing.

During his stop in Japan, Panetta gave a call to strengthen the US-Japan alliance and confirmed that a second land-based missile radar system will be deployed in Japan. Although the Pentagon argued that such a deployment is targeted at the Democratic People's Republic of Korea rather than China, the radar system will cover parts of China.

China is not intending to go to war with Japan. It also looks forward to maintaining a peaceful development road free of foreign intervention and continuing with its modernization drive. But that does not mean China will tolerate its territory being intruded into by other countries. Japan should not underestimate China's determination to maintain its sovereignty and should return to the negotiating table.

As a key player in Asia-Pacific, the US should maintain a genuine neutral stance and avoid intervening in the Diaoyu Islands dispute.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 09/25/2012 page8)