Iraq and Afghanistan

The Chinese government has launched an initiative campaign within China intended to prevent Japan from becoming a permanent member of the Security Council (along with Germany in the one current proposal). They hope to have enough signatures that the government can say that it simply cannot agree to making Japan a permanent member. China is apparently upset by recent Japanese support for an American position on Taiwan, as well as what goes into Japanese textbooks about World War II. (I would hate to know what goes into Chinese textbooks).

Whatever the sins of the Japanese, Japan is still the second largest economy in the world. It has made a major contribution to many international programs in the last few years, including both those promoted separately by the United Nations and by the United States.

As I pointed out before, the United States needs to set about developing an effective, long-term method of controlling the growth of Chinese power in the world. Taking a firm position on this issue in support of a permanent seat for Japan would make a good start. It should be made clear to other candidates such as Germany, India, and Brazil that China is standing in the way of the expansion of the permanent membership. We might also start talking about alternative ways of establishing world order and marshalling world opinion on critical issues in ways that by-pass the Security Council if it is not to be expanded. Plans for expanding the functions of the OECD (previous post) is one approach. New modalities for regulating international trade that would decrease the advantages China seems to have is another. Whatever we do, we should act in such a way that China becomes isolated on this issue and is forced to pay a diplomatic price.