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Is Japan targeting China in next move?

(Xinhua)    19:09, July 01, 2014
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BEIJING, July 1 -- The Japanese government's endorsing of a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution on Tuesday for the right to collective self-defense is a dangerous move that will lead to security worries for other Asian countries.

The reinterpretation, approved by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet, paves the way for sending soldiers into battle overseas to defend Japan and "countries with close ties".

It seems "self-defensive", but Japan is obviously building its security on the basis of insecurity of other Asian countries including China.

The Chinese people still remember what happened on Sept. 18, 1931, when Japanese troops began invading northeast China and the following 14 years of war. One of the pretexts for the Japanese government to use force on that day was to "protect" its citizens overseas.

Previously, the Meiji constitution, which was promulgated in 1889, has been regarded as the source of Japan's war aggression and it was under this constitution that Japan launched the first Sino-Japanese War in 1894.

Now, once again people have reasons to worry that changing the interpretation of the pacifist Constitution put in place after the end of World War II (WWII) could drag the nation back into its bloody nightmare.

More than six decades after the Potsdam Proclamation was issued to the fascist forces, Japan as a defeated country is publicly challenging the post-war order under the excuse of becoming a so-called "normal country".

With a distorted attitude toward history, the Japanese government refuses to admit the nature, let alone scale, of its war crimes during WWII, including the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 when more than 300,000 Chinese people were murdered by Japanese invaders.

The Japanese government challenges China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands, which is an open defiance to the Cairo Declaration, an important international document in handling Japan's aggression.

Abe's visit to a shrine honoring Class-A war criminals last December has caused a growing chill in its relations with neighboring countries.

For a nation that had a notorious history of invasion into China and other Asian countries, Japan's move to allow self-defense forces to engage in battles overseas and fight for countries that have close ties with Japan will make the nation a major source of threat for Asia.

Japan has a history of making sneaky attacks, as it did in launching wars with China, Russia and the United States in the recent 100 years.

Now, Japan, with greater freedom to use military force, is making the world more worried.

With all the historical and realistic concerns in mind, the question for Abe is that: is China on your military agenda?

(Editor:Du Mingming、Bianji)

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