The emerging Japan of the 1920s and ’30s, like today’s China, was steeped in historic resentment of the West’s forcible imposition of commercial and cultural influence. Both countries set about building military capabilities commensurate with their new economic prowess.
Some China scholars have begun to accuse Beijing of “salami tacticsâ€Â in seeking to seize gradual control of the South China Sea. The term evokes disturbing echoes of Nazi Germany’s incremental aggression until it was ready for all-out war.
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Applying World War II terminology to China’s current behavior may seem overblown, but it is apt. In fact, China’s actions also resemble those of another bad actor of that tragic period: Imperial Japan.
The emerging Japan of the 1920s and ’30s, like today’s China, was steeped in historic resentment of the West’s forcible imposition of commercial and cultural influence. Even as Western interaction hugely benefited Japan’s economy then and China’s now, both countries set about building military capabilities commensurate with their new economic prowess.
Naked military power was seen by Imperial Japan, as it is by the Communist Party in China, as necessary to defend and expand industrial achievements and economic influence against hostile Western nations, most notably the United States.
After attacking and annexing Manchuria on the basis of a minor pretext in 1931, Japanese forces extended their invasion into China proper. By the end of the 1930s, Tokyo was ready to look beyond its controlled land area comprising the home islands, Korea, Taiwan, and much of China.
On August 1, 1940, Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka announced his government’s intention to establish a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere†under Japan’s physical and/or political control and free of Western influence. It would include the former European colonies of Southeast Asia â€" what Tokyo called the Southern Regions â€" and the Pacific Islands.
The Co-Prosperity Sphere would provide a supply of regional raw materials and energy resources to ensure Japanese self-sufficiency while enabling Japan to control the world’s access to these vital areas and commercial routes.
Mirroring the strategy of Japan’s military government prior to World War II, the newly established People’s Republic of China first consolidated its territory before venturing into wider maritime regions. In 1950, the same year it supported North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, China invaded and incorporated Tibet and East Turkestan (now Xinjiang). In 1962, it invaded India and seized territory which it still holds. In 1969, it engaged in a series of border conflicts with the Soviet Union that almost erupted into all-out war. In 1979, after Vietnam had invaded Cambodia and overthrown China’s ally, Pol Pot, China invaded northern Vietnam to “teach it a lesson†through a scorched-earth campaign.
Having dramatically increased its military and naval power, China now asserts expansive territorial and maritime claims in the East China Sea and South China Sea, maintains its longstanding claim over the Taiwan Strait, and indulges its ally North Korea’s claim to dominance in the Yellow Sea.
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