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The dispute<\/a> between China and Japan over territorial claims to the\u00a0Senkaku\/Diaoyu island chains has become the front line in the Sino-Japanese realpolitik rivalry. But it is at least as much about the geo-political contest between the U.S. and China, with Japan as a proximate instrument of American power in East Asia.<\/p>\n President Obama’s so-called \u2018Asia pivot\u2019 is\u00a0an aggressive policy that involves surging American military presence<\/a>\u00a0throughout the region<\/a>\u00a0and backing basically all of China\u2019s rivals\u00a0in a\u00a0nationalistic scheme to block China\u2019s rise<\/a>\u00a0as a world power. Included in this scheme is beefing up U.S. naval presence in the region’s vital waterways and reaffirming America’s security arrangements with countries like Japan. If Japan’s security is ever threatened, say our defense treaties, America will go to war on their behalf.<\/p>\n This understandably rattles China.\u00a0A\u00a02012 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies<\/a>\u00a0predicted, correctly it turns out, that 2013, \u201ccould see a shift in Chinese foreign policy based on the new leadership\u2019s judgment that it must respond to a U.S. strategy that seeks to prevent China\u2019s reemergence as a great power.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSigns of a potential harsh reaction are already detectable,\u201d the report said. \u201cThe U.S. Asia pivot has triggered an outpouring of anti-American sentiment in China that will increase pressure on China\u2019s incoming leadership to stand up to the United States. Nationalistic voices are calling for military countermeasures to the bolstering of America\u2019s military posture in the region and the new US defense strategic guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n And America’s role in Sino-Japanese tensions became even more explicit with news today<\/a> that Japan lodged a diplomatic protest after Chinese state media “published a commentary by two Chinese government-backed scholars who said ownership of the Ryukyu islands should be re-examined,” Reuters reports<\/a>. The\u00a0Ryukyu islands are separate from\u00a0the\u00a0Senkaku\/Diaoyu dispute, resting further northeast. Importantly, the Ryukyu islands include Okinawa, the location of the biggest U.S. military base in all of Japan, holding about 50,000 U.S. military personnel.<\/p>\n The controversy prompted an ostentatious exchange:<\/p>\n “China\u00a0cannot accept Japan’s so-called negotiations or protests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing.<\/p>\n “The relevant scholars’ academic articles reflect attention and research paid by China’s populace and academia to the Diaoyu Islands and related historical problems,” Hua said.<\/p>\n Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday that the islands were Japanese territory.<\/p>\n “Japan lodged a stern protest that we can by no means accept the article in question if it reflects the Chinese government’s stance,” Suga said.<\/p>\n China had responded to Japan by saying that the piece was written by scholars as individuals, Suga said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Chinese scholars claimed the\u00a0Ryukyu islands were a “vassal state” of China’s Ming and Qing dynasties before they were annexed by Japan. Whether that has any legitimacy whatsoever, I don’t know. But it is probably not so coincidental that the conspicuous claim to even more territory long claimed by Japan also holds 50,000 U.S. military personnel.<\/p>\n The attempt by the United States to debilitate China for the sake of its own global hegemony has predictably emboldened China. Beijing and Tokyo have nearly come to blows in the recent past over conflicting territorial claims, but only after being inflamed by the U.S.-China rivalry in the background.<\/p>\n Late last year, a Chinese think-tank predicted<\/a>\u00a0that military conflict between China and Japan might be inevitable, thanks in part to US meddling in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n As for the Senkaku Islands, the report explained that Japan\u2019s right-wing groups, which have gained strength through the country\u2019s two decades of a sluggish economy called \u201cthe lost 20 years,\u201d regarded U.S. policy of \u201cpivoting to Asia\u201d as the best opportunity to nationalize the islands. In September, Japan purchased three of the five Senkaku Islands, called the Diaoyu Islands in China, from a private landowner.<\/p>\n \u2026\u201cJapan\u2019s nationalization of the Diaoyu Islands destroyed the framework for keeping a balance, which means \u2018shelving a conflict,\u2019 \u201d a Chinese diplomatic source said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A veteran Chinese diplomat warned back in October that the US is\u00a0using Japan as a strategic tool in its military surge in Asia-Pacific aimed at containing China and is\u00a0heightening tensions between China and Japan<\/a>.\u00a0Chen Jia, who served as an under secretary general of the United Nations and as China\u2019s ambassador to Japan,\u00a0accused the US of encouraging a militaristic response by Japan.\u00a0\u201cThe US is urging Japan to play a greater role in the region in security terms, not just in economic terms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n