Ambassador sower of discordant seeds

While all regional countries have shown their concerns about Japan increasing its defense spending to 2 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, which will make it the world's third-largest military spender, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel hailed the move, saying that it is important Japan improve its "counterstrike and counteroffensive" capabilities by increasing its defense budget.

At a Yomiuri International Economic Society lecture in Tokyo on Friday, Emanuel also said that the Japan-United States alliance has transitioned from an era when it was focused on "protection" of the partnership to an era of "projection" in the "Indo-Pacific". That means Japan's increase of its expenditure will by no means be spent on defense but on offense as required by the US.

Shooting a salvo of baseless criticisms targeting China, Emanuel has shown not only his poor diplomatic etiquette and lack of professionalism, but also his limited knowledge of the mutually beneficial nature of healthy relations between Japan and China.