The heart of conflicts

There has been a lot of wasted pixels over whether China is at fault for allowing the anti-Japanese demonstrations or whether we should blame Japan for never facing up to their bloody past etc. etc. etc. Heck, I did a lot of the pixel-wasting myself. Frankly, except for the enormous moral and economical stakes, it was a big round of you say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to. I think Publius got a lot closer to the heart of the matter in one tangential paragraph than I did with whole ranting spluttering posts.

The recent agitation against Japan cannot be separated from the strategic obstacle that Japan potentially poses to China’s oil supply. Granted, the protesters probably aren’t worried about oil, but China’s government has every reason in the world to encourage its citizens to hate Japan. That’s because as China’s needs for oil grow, it’s only a matter of time before they use (or threaten) military force against its neighbors to secure or seize oil supplies and the networks necessary to import them. When it does, some future American president is going to have some difficult decisions to make.

I mean, not to get tinfoil hattish on y'all. But think about the timing, man! The anti-Japanese protests 'broke out' April 9th. Just a few days later, the big row between Japan and China over oil-drilling rights in the East China Sea got started. Unrelated events, or a shot across the bow followed swiftly by a big "fuck you"?