Boo! You don't scare us...

From Times Online
February 23, 2007
Comment: Asia no longer in awe of US superpower
Times Asia Editor looks at how Dick Cheney's visit has displayed a new mood in the region
Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor of The Times

A year ago, it would have been hard to imagine Dick Cheney making a tour of Asia like this one.

Back then, the United States and Japan were as one in their refusal to brook any compromise with North Korea over its nuclear programme. But in Tokyo this week, the hawkish Mr Cheney found himself in the position of flogging to the Japanese public an agreement which plenty of them view with suspicion.

A year ago, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, seemed unassailable, a rock solid supporter of Mr Cheney and his president. Today, though, he also felt obliged to meet Kevin Rudd, the Australian Opposition leader who is riding high in opinion polls ands who has promised to pull Australian troops out of Iraq if he is elected.

Events – from the loss of Congress to the Republican party to the North Korean nuclear test, and above all the continuing morass in Iraq – have forced a new realism, even a humility on the US government. From Asia, the change is striking: in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing, the Bush Administration has shed credibility, authority and respect.

Japanese Cabinet ministers speak openly of US “cockiness” and “childishness”. Long-held principles are jettisoned – after insisting for years that it would not deal one-to-one with North Korea, the US was forced to do exactly that in order to reach the disarmament agreement in the Six Party Talks in Beijing last week. Having reassured Japan that it gave high priority to its demand for the return of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea, the US supported a document last week that made no mention of them.

Mr Cheney made a point of playing down expectations of the agreement. “Pyongyang,” he said, “has much to prove.” But it was his remarks on China that were most interesting.

It is China, remember, which hosted and brokered last week’s talks on Korea, “the first hopeful step towards a better future”, as Mr Cheney put it. But rather than grateful thanks, the emphasis of his remarks was on the threat which China is beginning to represent.

“The Chinese understand that a nuclear North Korea would be a threat to their own security, [but] other actions by the Chinese government send a different message,” he said. “Last month's anti-satellite test and China's continued fast-paced military build-up are less constructive and are not consistent with China's stated goal of a 'peaceful rise'.”

He sounded more than anyone like Japan’s Foreign Minister, Taro Aso, the man who a few weeks ago, called his government “childish”. Was Mr Cheney signalling a new sternness towards China? Or was he merely trying to keep his Japanese friends happy?