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Japanese intentions and US “divide and rule” machinations. According to
an article in China Daily, Tokyo’s new policy “baldly plays up the so-called
‘China threat’ ... [and] calls China’s normal military development ‘a matter of
concern for the region and the international community’.” This made “crystal
clear” Japan’s intention to “contain China” in cooperation with the United
States, South Korea, Australia, and “other countries.” The new guidelines
and the anti-China views underpinning them seriously damaged and under-
mined the consensus (stated during Hu Jintao’s 2008 visit) that “China and
Japan are not each other’s threat.” The shift in Japan’s policy indicated that the
JSDF “will become more aggressive.”^59
Japan responded to China’s mounting military pressure by drawing closer
to other Asian countries with similar apprehensions about China’s growing
power: Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, and India. The most
important of these countries, and the only one with capabilities adequate to
shape the regional environment, was India. By 2015, the formation of a stra-
tegic entente between Japan and India in response to Beijing’s use of China’s
growing power had become the potential core of an Asian coalition fearful of
China’s possible future course. It is thus to India that this study now turns.
There, too, China’s policies did not reassure its neighbor.