The cost may be enormous, editorial: Japan and South Korea stand guard for the United States at Camp David | Summit | United States

The David Camp Summit of the United States, Japan, and South Korea will be held on the 18th local time. According to media reports, the leaders of the three countries will hold bilateral and trilateral talks respectively, and hold a joint press conference later that day. It is reported that this summit, which lasts less than a day, will produce two outcome documents: the "Camp David Principles" and the "Camp David Spirit". The "Camp David Principles" will be published in a higher standard than the joint statement and are expected to become the overall guideline for guiding cooperation between the United States, Japan, and South Korea. However, according to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the evening of the 17th, negotiations are still ongoing on the final text to describe the extent of China.

Although the United States has high expectations for this summit, describing it as building a "trilateral relationship of the 21st century," the differences between the parties cannot be concealed when the issue falls from small talk to details. Of course, the United States wants to tie Japan and South Korea together, forming a hinge to contain China in diplomacy, military, and economy. However, as The Washington Post said, how to make Japan and South Korea believe that the US efforts will not come at the expense of sacrificing their interests will be one of the challenges Biden faces at this summit. This is quite an artistic statement, which translates to how the United States can deceive Japan and South Korea in order to make them willingly give up their national interests and stand guard for the United States on the front line of the "New Cold War".

This account is not difficult to calculate at all. If the trilateral structure of the United States, Japan, and South Korea is built entirely according to the will of the United States, the prospects it brings to the Asia Pacific region can be easily foreseen. Firstly, trilateral security cooperation directly targets North Korea, which is equivalent to turning the Korean Peninsula into a "pressure cooker", and South Korea will bear the greatest security pressure first. And decades of experience have proven that the so-called "extended deterrence" by the United States has never been able to bring true security to South Korea. Secondly, the United States is focusing on promoting three parties to "strengthen security" in the field of technology. No matter how it is whitewashed, it is likely to damage the hard-earned economic and trade ecological environment in Northeast Asia. According to Washington's blueprint, the companies in Japan and South Korea will be the first to experience significant bleeding, and at the same time, the economic prosperity of the Asia Pacific region will also be torn open, possibly even rotting and infecting a wider region.

For both Japan and South Korea, current decision-makers are not blind to these consequences. They are also well aware that these actions will inevitably alert countries in China and other regions, and once they exert too much force, these countries will not sit idly by for actions that harm their own interests. Therefore, there is a significant difference in attitude among the three countries regarding how China will be mentioned at the summit. On the day before the summit, Seoul also emphasized that the focus of the meeting was not on restraining China, and did not believe that the three parties would discuss the controversial issue of "investment restrictions on China". Because Seoul is well aware that this is by no means in its own national interest.

We want to remind Tokyo and Seoul not to take chances on this issue. There is no "perfect balance" among them, which can tightly bind them to the United States in politics and security, while also taking advantage of the prosperity of the Asia Pacific region in economic and social development. If the current decision-makers of Japan and South Korea only focus on short-term diplomatic achievements with the United States, regardless of other factors, their decisions today are likely to affect the development direction of Japan and South Korea for generations to come. We must bear historical responsibility for both our own descendants and the prosperity and stability of the Asia Pacific region.

On the 17th, while publicly announcing the achievements of the Camp David summit plan, the Office of the President of South Korea stated that this day "will become an important watershed in the history of cooperation between the United States, Japan, and South Korea." This statement is probably intended for those in South Korea who question the summit. What we are concerned about is that the Camp David summit may become a watershed for the situation in Northeast Asia, but it is not what South Korea has called a "watershed". Instead, it is a watershed for East Asia to overcome differences and disputes in the past and work together for peace and development, and to shift towards amplifying differences and disputes and dividing and confronting factions. A previous Global Times editorial pointed out that the Camp David summit will sound the horn for a new Cold War, and this concern has become even stronger with the summit.

The US Ambassador to Japan, Ram Emanuel, acknowledged that "this is a major move on the chessboard," meaning that the US is in the next big game. Who does the United States imagine playing against? Who is being used as a chess piece by the United States again? There are some things that people can understand without saying them through. The significant initiative taken by the United States poses a huge risk to all parties involved in passive involvement. Europe's security dilemma eventually led to the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The "destination" pointed to by Camp David Summit is actually a pit that East Asia should strive to avoid. The Japanese and South Korean leaders who rushed to Camp David for a meeting today will sooner or later feel the consequences of this pitfall.