Apart from seeking the US' sympathy and support in the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands, Japan is also paving the way for a change in its constitutional interpretation of the use of force and trying to get the US to give a nod of approval to the change.

Japan's pacifist constitution, imposed by the US at the end of World War II, strictly restricts Japan's military activities abroad. Japan's right-wing activists seek a constitutional amendment that would transform the country's Self-Defense Forces into a fully-fledged military and lift the self-imposed ban on the right to excise collective self-defense.

However, getting the green light from Washington is not proving easy. The US has not forgotten Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, and Washington is wary about Japan's attempted constitutional change and the resurgence of militarism in the country. Tokyo has played up the alleged radar lock incident, claiming that "directing such radar is very abnormal", in a desperate attempt to get the US to back changes to the constitution.

In fact, Japan has played a similar trick before. During the Cold War, Japan hyped up a "threat" from the Soviet Union, so that the US would ease restrictions on Japan's military activities.

Japan's latest attempts to convince the US that it faces a China threat is also driven by its ignoble motive to absolve itself of the blame for heightening tension over the Diaoyu Islands issue. The Japanese government's bid to "nationalize" the Diaoyu Islands broke the consensus it had with China to shelve the territorial dispute.

Japan's unilateral move has sparked strong protest from the Chinese government and the Chinese people, as well as the peace-loving people in Japan. China has so far firmly responded to Japanese provocation to defend its territorial integrity, and Chinese maritime surveillance ships' routine patrols and law-enforcement in waters off the Diaoyu Islands have refuted Japan's self-proclaimed actual control of the islands.

The alleged radar lock-on incident is simply another political farce staged by Japanese right-wing activists to tarnish China's image and whitewash Japan's guilt for flaring up regional tension.

The author is a Beijing-based scholar of international relations.

(China Daily 03/29/2013 page8)