Tokyo-Manila collusion real threat to peace

This is an editorial from China Daily.

China's Ministry of Transport announced on Saturday that it has launched a special maritime traffic law-enforcement operation in waters east of China's Taiwan island.

According to the ministry's statement, the operation aims to fully exercise China's maritime administrative jurisdiction, enhance deep-sea patrol and law enforcement capabilities, strengthen traffic management in key waters and safeguard national rights and interests. The operation serves as a justified response to the unilateral announcement by Japan and the Philippines of their so-called "maritime delimitation talks" regarding the area, as well as a warning to the secessionist-minded Lai Ching-te authorities of Taiwan that openly "acclaimed" the collusion between Tokyo and Manila.

The plan of Japan and the Philippines to start the negotiations to "delimit the maritime boundary of an exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf" infringes on China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

It also contravenes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as the basic norms governing international relations.

According to China's domestic law and international law, including UNCLOS, China has exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the area involved.

If Japan had truly learned the lessons of history, it would not be accelerating its re-militarization under the pretext of "safeguarding regional stability" while being a source of instability.

Notably, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum reportedly plans to refer to the Nanjing Massacre as the "Nanjing Incident" — a shameless denial of history. The judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East dedicated a special chapter to documenting the massacre. The massacre's chief perpetrator, Iwane Matsui, was sentenced to death by hanging as a Class-A war criminal.

The Asahi Shimbun has reported on the outline of the Japanese government's 2026 defense white paper, which once again frames the regional security environment as "increasingly severe" and makes unfounded claims hyping the so-called "China threat". At its core, the document is designed to deliberately amplify "external threat" in order to shape domestic public opinion and create international "justifications" for a significant military budget increase, looser arms export controls, revised security strategies, and ultimately, the dismantling of the postwar constraints.

For Japan, elevating its military ties with the Philippines serves to promote the advance of its neo-militarism in the region.

For the Philippines, its government seeks to use "external threat" to divert public attention from domestic problems such as struggling economy, unemployment, poor healthcare and corruption.

The defense chiefs of the two countries jointly staged an ugly spectacle at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last month, turning a platform meant for communication into an opportunity to flatter the United States, divide the region, and stoke bloc confrontation. The whole region sees clearly they are the troublemakers and the real threat to regional peace and stability.

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr even brazenly claimed during the dialogue that although China has offered fertilizer and fuel to the Philippines, there is no demonstration of "good faith on a long-term basis", and it is actually "guileful".

This rhetoric shows his disregard for the welfare of the Philippine people and lack of appreciation for kindness. He only cares for selfish personal gains to the point that he is willing to perform political theatrics even when people's well-being is at stake.

Japan and the Philippines will only be increasingly isolated on the international stage if they continue down this wrong path of instigating confrontation.