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6/7/2025, 2:58:39 AM
The Pacific Pact: A Line Drawn in the Sea
February 17, 2022
Officials from Nippon, Australia, and Taiwan met in Tokio to sign a treaty that had been in the works since the days following the collapse of America. These three Pacific nations have entered into a military and economic alliance called the Pacific Defense Treaty Organization directly aimed at halting any future Shina advance in the region. The people in each respect nation, and several commentaries in SEA and East Asia, such as Chosen, have cheered this decision as potentially being able to stop future acts of aggression, or at least prevent the dominance of Shina in the Pacific.
The PTDO aims to do in Asia what NATO has done in Europe. In the early winter of the Cold War, Britain and France pleaded with the United States to provide for European defense. But the United States- then as now a reluctant multilateralist- joined only when it saw a way to contain Soviet expansion. In the ensuing decades, NATO laid the groundwork for European peace, prosperity, and security. The Asia-Pacific is, of course, far more diffuse-geographically, culturally, ethnically, politically, and otherwise- than Europe. But the basic deterrent principle at the heart of NATO is at the root of the PTDO.
During his first decade of leadership (2012-22), Xi Jinping’s actions have raised tensions with neighbors on several sides. In his first year as chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xi established an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over Taiwan, deployed PLA naval vessels near islands claimed by Japan, and rejected a Philippine request to arbitrate a maritime dispute under international law. Shina has since reclaimed land and heavily militarized islands in the South China Sea, placed an oil rig within Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and practiced an invasion of Taiwan. The PTDO, ultimately, is hoped to serve as a deterrent against Shina.
February 17, 2022
Officials from Nippon, Australia, and Taiwan met in Tokio to sign a treaty that had been in the works since the days following the collapse of America. These three Pacific nations have entered into a military and economic alliance called the Pacific Defense Treaty Organization directly aimed at halting any future Shina advance in the region. The people in each respect nation, and several commentaries in SEA and East Asia, such as Chosen, have cheered this decision as potentially being able to stop future acts of aggression, or at least prevent the dominance of Shina in the Pacific.
The PTDO aims to do in Asia what NATO has done in Europe. In the early winter of the Cold War, Britain and France pleaded with the United States to provide for European defense. But the United States- then as now a reluctant multilateralist- joined only when it saw a way to contain Soviet expansion. In the ensuing decades, NATO laid the groundwork for European peace, prosperity, and security. The Asia-Pacific is, of course, far more diffuse-geographically, culturally, ethnically, politically, and otherwise- than Europe. But the basic deterrent principle at the heart of NATO is at the root of the PTDO.
During his first decade of leadership (2012-22), Xi Jinping’s actions have raised tensions with neighbors on several sides. In his first year as chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xi established an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over Taiwan, deployed PLA naval vessels near islands claimed by Japan, and rejected a Philippine request to arbitrate a maritime dispute under international law. Shina has since reclaimed land and heavily militarized islands in the South China Sea, placed an oil rig within Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and practiced an invasion of Taiwan. The PTDO, ultimately, is hoped to serve as a deterrent against Shina.
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