"Haughtily aggressive" is the way some Chinese described the joint Japan-U.S. attack on China at the Shangri-La forum.

The keynote speaker, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, focused his speech on international law. It is amazing that he had the nerve to talk about law, as he is doing his best to flout his country's basic law, the Pacific Constitution, in the face of strong popular opposition.

His carefully prepared speech was full of veiled attacks on China, thus "harboring evil intentions," as the Chinese saying goes. But would he call Japan's action lawful when it "nationalized" China's territory, the Diaoyu Islands? Wouldn't that be a typical case of trying one-sidedly to change the status quo?

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel echoed Abe by using unusually strong language to openly accuse China of "destabilizing" the Asian Pacific region with "unilateral actions." The harsh language surprised many delegates. Hagel came across as arrogant using threats and intimidation such as, "The United States will not look the other way when fundamental principles of the international order are being challenged." Who is he trying to intimidate with these statements?

His accusation should be thrown back at the United States.

Just who is destabilizing the Asian-Pacific region? It enjoyed decades of peace and stability until Obama "rebalanced" the region. And Hagel reiterated U.S. support of Abe's reorientation of Japan's policy of collective self-defense barred by the country's Pacific Constitution. That means enabling defeated militarist Japan to again fight wars.

Hagel emphasized the importance of U.S. allies when he said, "America's treaty alliances remain the backbone of our presence in the Asian-Pacific." But reliance on military alliance is a manifestation of the Cold War mentality. As Gary Samore, executive director of research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, pointed out, the U.S. position in Asia is based on its system of alliances.

"If we were to abandon our allies, our position in Asia would become very weak," Samore said.

It was precisely U.S. allies Japan and the Philippines, egged on by Washington, that stirred up trouble, encroaching on China's territory. And Hagel talked about "working to strengthen our nations' (U.S. and Vietnam) emerging defense ties." It seems Washington is rounding up trouble makers to contain China.

Both Obama at West Point and Hagel at Shangri-La spoke with firm words. They wanted to reassure their jittery allies after the administration came under the war party's strong criticism as being too weak in both Syria and Crimea.

But, as the Chinese saying goes, "It is no propriety not to reciprocate," China could not allow the unreasonable attacks to go unanswered. General Wang Guanzhong, China's deputy chief of the General Staff of the PLA, while delivering his speech at the forum, called Hagel's accusations "beyond our expectations." He said Hagel's speech bore every sign of U.S. hegemony as it was filled with "instigations, threat and intimidation."

Wang stressed that, "China has never taken the first step to provoke trouble." Instead, it has been forced to respond to the provocative actions by others."

Fu Ying, head of the National People's Congress Foreign Affairs Department agreed that provocations must be responded to forcefully.

Major General Yao Yunzhu, director of the Center for China-America Defense Relations at the PLA's Academy of Military Science, questioned Hagel on how the U.S. can claim to be taking no position on the issue of island sovereignty while confirming its treaty obligation to defend Japan.

In spite of the tit-for-tat debate, Chinese and U.S. military leaders met and held a cordial and constructive meeting and agreed to deepen bilateral military relations.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.h5a3.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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