In the wake of the brutal ambush of 20 brave Indian soldiers on June 15, the June 8 opinion piece headlined “India’s appeasement policy toward China unravels,” sounds like a prophecy come true. India’s appeasement of China has indeed failed and so will the West’s and Japan’s. Appeasements always embolden the adversary.
China needs to be countered militarily and socio-economically. Southeast Asia needs its own version of NATO to counter Chinese aggression. India, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Vietnam and Philippines should realize that divided we fall. Japan has the technological muscle and rest of the countries bring demographic and geographical advantages.
On the socio-economic front, countering China is more difficult. The entire world has attempted socio-economic appeasement of China and has failed. Facebook and Twitter are still banned in China while we are forced (by the WTO) to buy Chinese goods. While China has more than a million Muslims in concentration camps, Islamic countries continue to supply it oil.
Chinese are the largest immigrant group to the West (and Japan) without any tangible emigration to China. As demonstrated by many thefts of intellectual property in the U.S., China has effectively used its nationals to conduct clandestine warfare. The Secure Campus Act in the U.S. is proposed legislation countering the weaponization of Chinese students.
The term “Chinese Virus” is seen as racist while Chinese diplomats spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19. China is using our own economics, democracy and freedom against us. Global socio-economic invasion by China has so far been unchallenged. Global capitalists keep enriching the Chinese Communist Party and Western universities keep educating the sworn enemies of democracy and freedom. All great democratic and liberal minds in India, Japan, Australia and the U.S. must urgently unite. The time for appeasement has passed and the time for self-defense is quickly running out as well.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.