In Asia, there's a new sheriff in town and he wears five yellow stars

The People’s Liberation Army’s chief of general staff, General Chen Bingde (right), with the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.



by Wayne Madsen



With China increasingly calling the economic and diplomatic shots, nations that had long depended on the status quo preserved by U.S. military, economic and diplomatic might, including Japan and South Korea, are scrambling to find new protectors, as well as beefing up their own military forces. Waye Madsen analyzes the shifting power dynamics within the region.

There is a new sheriff in town in Asia and the United States, in a last gasp at preserving its influence in the region, is attempting to cement old alliances while forging new ones. Confronted by a China that has eclipsed the economy of Japan, thus achieving the distinction of being the world’s second-largest economy, the days of the United States acting as a major powerbroker in Asia is coming to an end.

Because Japan no longer trusts the quality of United States intelligence, it has embarked on creating its own foreign intelligence service, modeled on Britain’s MI-6. U.S.-Japanese intelligence cooperation has existed since the end of World War II, but Japanese officials do not believe the United States has shared with Japan the type of intelligence that is seen as important for Japan’s own national security interests in Asia.
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