China plays into Japan's hands with oil rig move

CONSUMMATE though China can be at times in its diplomatic skills, it appears to have played straight into the hands of Japan by the timing of its move to station a massive deepwater oil drilling rig close to a tiny island in the South China Sea claimed by both China and Vietnam.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was scarcely back in Tokyo from a trip to Brussels where he signed a cooperation agreement with Nato to resist any attempt by outside powers to claim territory by force when Beijing presented both parties with an apparent attempt to do just that. Not that Nato is likely to take up arms against China over the stationing of the rig in disputed waters, or over territorial disputes involving the Paracel and Spratly Islands, but China's latest action does allow Japan to point the finger and say "we told you so" to Nato and others. Beijing's timing was infelicitous too…