China is nothing if not a believer in “the long game”. It does not roughly push an opponent out of the way, it shoulders them, and keeps on shouldering them. It uses commercial activities right alongside of military ones, putting the commercial ones out front, to carry out the process.
For the most part, this strategy works. China has shouldered the US a bunch of times: to get it to move away from supporting Taiwan, to try to get it out of the South China Sea; and eventually China has been clear that it wants the US out of the western Pacific entirely.
And the strategy is not limited to just the US. China uses it continually against the other western Pacific nations, and even India. No mistake, it is an aggressive foreign policy.
Well, the Asia pivot, has been planned by the DOD for some time, and it will get some of the best of what we have. So, China’s shouldering is not working. The US also has Defense Treaties with Taiwan, which will be honored upon attack.
This latest move by China will merely speed up Japanese Naval shipbuilding and air asset buying. I look for Japan to have a real aircraft carrier within 20-25 years.
If none of your neighbors likes you, that’s a problem. This isn’t just about Japan.
I frankly have no idea what China thinks they are achieving. Except it must be related to domestic politics, which means their internal situation is much more unstable than we think.
Also, there is zero chance Taiwan will become part of China. Te younger generation has no attachment to the homeland and expects a certain amount of civil liberties.