By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The US has an impossible task maintaining “neutrality”, and Beijing knows it.
Washington guarantees Japan’s defence under its US nuclear umbrella. It uses military bases on Japanese soil as an unsinkable aircraft carrier. It works hand in glove with Tokyo in a tight military alliance.
The question is whether Washington is really willing to uphold the Japanese alliance as the going gets tougher. Will it let America to be led by the nose by Japanese nationalists into a clash that is not obviously – or immediately – in US national interest?
President Barack Obama faces the toughest diplomatic choice of any US leader since John Kennedy…….
via China, Japan and the world’s Agadir Crisis (1911) – Telegraph Blogs.