Sometimes facts and claims hard to distinguish

Comments on Yuriko Koike “Cold War with China is not inevitable”, 11/01/2011, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/cold-war-with-china-is-not-inevitable/story-e6frg6zo-1225984624335

While the article's conclusion or intention is good and should be applauded, some of the materials presented in the article are confusing.

For example, Yuriko Koike states the following “It is this grim history that makes China's present disregard for Deng Xiaoping's maxim that China "disguise its ambition and hide its claws" so worrying for Asian leaders from New Delhi to Seoul and from Tokyo to Jakarta. From its refusal to condemn North Korea's unprovoked sinking of the South Korean warship, Cheonan, and shelling of South Korean islands, to its claims of sovereignty over various Japanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Philippine archipelagos and newly conjured claims on India's province of Arunachal Pradesh, China has revealed a neo-imperial swagger.”

Those claims had been there, just as the countries on the other side on the disputed territories have also maintained their claims. They are disputed territories and have some history with them. To be fair, there are some territories that are under China’s control but also claimed by some other countries including some of the above mentioned ones.

Yuriko Koike’s presentation makes the claims as if new claims. Further, his characterisation those claims as revealing a neo-imperial swagger is completely wrong, just as any saying that the other sides are neo-imperial by maintaining their claiming of some of China’s held territories would be wrong.

Further, to include China’s “refusal to condemn North Korea's unprovoked sinking of the South Korean warship, Cheonan, and shelling of South Korean islands” as part of the basis of the argument is at least one sided and potentially biased. While most western countries accept the argument that North Korea's sank of the South Korean warship, Cheonan, China and some other countries have not accepted that as a fact. If one is not sure, then how can you condemn North Korea as the culprit?

Equally, the “shelling of South Korean islands” by North Korea is a fact given that it did not deny it, but which side was the first culprit is still unclear. The two sides have blamed the other side to have provoked the chain incidents.

Clearly South Korea has conducted many military drills very close to the borders with the North. For a truly independent observer, it is indeed difficult to simply accept the South’s claim, or the North’s for that matter for the same basic reason.

PS: I don't believe that Yuriko Koike is deliberately misleading in his post, it may have been a result of simply accepting one-sided arguments or claims.