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Washington treats Asian areas like its own. Administrations and Congress believe America has sovereign rights over East Asian waters and territory it wants for bases. In June, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said around 60% of US naval forces will be based in the Pacific by 2020.
Strengthening America's presence is part of a new imperial strategy. It's about going head-to-head with China. It aims to isolate Beijing regionally. It's a recipe for heightened tensions and eventual confrontation.
Comparable Chinese or Russian presence in US waters would be pretext for war. So would their bases in neighboring regional countries.
America operates like territories and waters everywhere are its own. It works because other nations don't object. Japan goes along. It accepts what it should reject.
Last May, Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Washington. Both leaders plan strengthening their strategic ties. They'll also boost joint military activities. At issue is China.
A joint state pledged to "further enhance our bilateral security and defense cooperation." A commitment was also affirmed to "US strategic rebalancing to the Asia Pacific." Plans are to establish "a more geographically distributed and operationally resilient force posture in the region."
Washington has been "rebalancing" in East Asia for years. Strategy calls for strengthening military, economic, and political ties with Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam.
It's also about undermining Chinese influence, isolating it from neighbors, and giving Washington more dominance over territories and waters not its own. Russia is also affected.
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