Il Riarmo Asiatico 
It 's a matter of fact, the Far East
are pulling out their claws. This is not the old four tigers roared back in the business world of the seventies. Now it comes to military power
.
From North Korea to Malaysia, each with its own resources, there seems to be a few years a race to rearm
, who recently gave a shot of accelerator. About
for national pride, some for territorial claims, some to secure a defense for those who extend their influence, Who to hold another human being, the west side of the 'Pacific Ocean
is giving signs of boiling. Not to mention what's happening in the Indian subcontinent, which we omit for space reasons. Let's go step by step
. First
who are the actors? seems strange, but it's appropriate to tell all. Or at least all those that border the sea:
North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines (and the Sultanate of Brunei, as it may affect regional fortunes a reality so small). Is not lacking either the United States
and, later, the
Russia. According
:
why? Here the answers are varied and cover all cases, explicit and implicit, which normally induce a country to sharpen the knives
. So let us draw a picture before going into details.
Unlike Europe and the West in general, in the Far East
the Second World War did not end in 1945 . In Asia, the conflict continued with a
civil war in China until 1949, then a
Korean War (1950-1954, although to date no one has yet signed a peace officer) and a war in Indochina
(1946-1954) in a few years turned in the most famous
Vietnam War (1964-1975), just to mention a few events. Each with its aftermath
. The question of
Taiwan Strait and the relationship between Seoul and Pyongyang
only the most famous unsolved cases in the Far East.
And if the past year relations between Taipei and Beijing have cooled, the opposite happens some parallels to the north. News of the day is in fact the likely launch of a missile
by the government of Kim Jong-il, to be performed between 4 and 8 April.
Pyongyang says is for scientific purposes
: the legitimate to launch a satellite into orbit.
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington not agree: the medium used will in fact be the Taepodong-2
already experienced (as a result of bankruptcy) in 2006 and capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as well as potentially reaching Alaska and Hawaii .
The United States and South Korea have therefore already
deployed the fleet off the coast of Korea and Japan has expressed its readiness to
intercept and destroy the missile in flight , if it appears to be a danger to the safety Japan's territorial. Of course, such destruction will be interpreted by North Korea as an act of aggression
militare , con tutte le conseguenze del caso.
Un bel test per
Barack Obama .
Mosca e Pechino intanto guardano, e suggeriscono a Pyongyang di non effettuare il lancio, per il bene di tutti. Soprattutto di Pechino.
E qui entra in gioco un altro fattore:
l’espansione militar/territoriale cinese ; la Repubblica Popolare Cinese, infatti, negli ultimi tempi sta uscendo fuori dal guscio. Il suo
apparato militare , nonostante sia molto lontano dai livelli della macchina da guerra Statunitense (sotto tutti gli aspetti, al primo posto nel mondo), sta
crescendo a ritmi notevoli e, per la prima volta dopo secoli, sta iniziando to look "beyond the sea."
Continuing
flow of goods and raw materials that come and go between Africa and China are the official reasons expansion of the Chinese shipbuilding industry, which sought to protect this trade from the incursions of modern piracy. However
may be other reasons, most notably the desire to become a regional power
not only economic but also military, taking control of the seas that the Ming dynasty abandoned in the fifteenth century.
Hence, it is clear why Beijing to Pyongyang suggests limiting the arrows:
most North Korean activism leads to greater U.S. military presence in the western Pacific that, among its seas, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and South China Sea.
It is no coincidence that just recently there has been a "
spat" between an American ship and a group of Chinese ships. In the version of Washington, the American ship was conducting scientific studies in international waters, in what Beijing was carrying out espionage activities in Chinese territorial waters.
Chinese naval expansion also aims to extend control
surrounding islands. First
Taiwan, according to Beijing that sooner or later must return under the official control of the People's Republic.
Second myriad atolls, islets, reefs and the like
that dot the East China Sea and South China Sea .
South we find the Spratly Islands
(although each country to appoint otherwise), as well as from China, also claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines
from Vietnam
from
Malaysia and the Sultanate of
Brunei . In March alone, the various governments have proclaimed its sovereignty hours on this island, now on this one. Some, like the Malay
Prime Minister Dato 'Seri Abdullah Bin Ahmad Badawi , it have even established the control port. The
China has been sent to patrol a former military ship, the 311
Yuzheng , to put the record straight. The Spratly
, besides the fact that they are in a rich fishing area rich in natural resources
such as oil, are also a
strategic point for trade in the Far East, and a few miles from the Strait of Malacca
, which is the gateway to '
Indian Ocean. The Spratly
are just the beginning of the waltz of the eastern islands. In fact, natural resources are the basis for the claims on another group of islands, the Diaoyutai
, located east of the disputes between China and Beijing, Taipei and Tokyo (which calls the Senkaku
).
Japan, however, also claimed the Northern Territories
(Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai group) contending with Russia, calling them Southern Kuril, and since 1945 are still waiting
a peace treaty between Moscow and Tokyo which enshrines the ultimate sovereignty.
Finally, Tokyo argues with Seoul (in this case supported by Pyongyang) for possession of
Takeshima, known in Korean as Dokdo in
.
It 'important to remember this regard that
Japan after the defeat of 1945 came out strongly reduced in its military and territorial. The major restriction in that it can not have its own army, if not for defensive purposes or for internal police, has prevented the resolution of certain disputes.
The establishment in 2007 of a Japanese
Ministry of Defence (until then absent) is a tangible sign of a growing interest in the regional balance of power and the resurgence of
issues long dormant .
