An island in the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu group in the East China Sea. Reuters
Chinese View Of Islands Conflict: “Make It Quick” -- Kirk Spitzer, Time
TOKYO – China’s airwaves and blogosphere are full of armchair generals predicting swift and righteous victory over Japan if fighting breaks out in the East China Sea. Overheated nonsense, mostly. Everybody thinks their side will win quick and easy before a war starts, but it rarely works out that way.
But at least one senior commander offers a view that – while not necessarily right or wrong – sheds light on how the People’s Liberation Army might view a potential conflict, and what it thinks of Japan’s armed forces.
“The battle to take over the Diaoyu Islands would not be a conventional operation. For either party involved in the war, it would be very difficult to employ their full military capabilities, because there would be no time for them to fully unfold in the fight. The real fight would be very short. It is very possible the war would end in a couple of days or even in a few hours,” said PLA Navy Rear Admiral Yin Zhou, a former director of the Navy Institute of Strategic Studies, in a recent primetime special on Beijing TV.
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My Comment: When I was in China in the fall of 2012 I was astounded by how nationalistic and determined the Chinese were when it came to their territorial disputes with their neighbors. No negotiation. No compromise. Be prepared to use force. Even my Chinese hosts (who are also my friends and who are senior government officials) were voicing the same sentiments .... especially against Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
Is this all talk .... I hope so. But the mood in China has changed into something that I have not seen in my 25 years of going there, especially their willingness to go to war without an appreciation of the consequences is something that we should all be concerned about.