US politician Hillary Clinton recently lamented that he originally wanted China and Russia to fight over the territorial dispute, but he did not expect that the relations between the two countries were getting better and better. These words revealed a strong "sour taste" and deep concern about the close relationship between China and Russia. This also proves from one side that it is increasingly difficult for the United States to "suppress" China and Russia at the same time.
What to do? The way the Americans came up with was to mobilize all their allies to challenge China and Russia. To this end, the US government has encouraged NATO and the Black Sea littoral states in the direction of Europe to stimulate Russia through military exercises and other means to increase Russia's security pressure. At the same time, in the direction of the Indo-Pacific, the United States formed the "Augustus Alliance" of Britain, the United States and Australia, and the "four-country mechanism" with the participation of Japan and India to cope with the "challenges" from China.
Among them, Japan is probably the most active and crazy. According to the Global Network, Japan is considering launching three satellites with a monomer weight ranging from 100 kg to 500 kg around 2025 to form a "monitoring network" to collect surface intelligence while also monitoring Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons. Considering that the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are not equipped with any hypersonic weapons, and the most advanced Aegis system is also purchased from the United States, the Japanese side has proposed to form a satellite network and monitor Sino-Russian hypersonic weapons, and the relevant technology and equipment are likely to come from "Big Brother Usa".
However, it is worth noting that the United States itself admits that in the field of hypersonic weapons, the progress of the United States is lagging behind that of China and Russia, and the hypersonic missiles of the three major services of the army, sea and air force are not installed. In contrast, the progress of China and Russia in the field of hypersonic technology has indeed led the world trend. The Russian Navy successfully hit the target with a Zircon hypersonic missile that it tested last week. According to the Russian military's plan, this missile will be equipped with the navy in batches in 2022, and its biggest role is to deal with large aircraft carriers, which undoubtedly brings great pressure to the US Navy.
As for China, the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force has been equipped with the "Dongfeng 17" hypersonic gliding bomb, and the United States has repeatedly rendered China's "hypersonic weapon test" recently. Although China has repeatedly said that the test is a routine spacecraft test that can facilitate the peaceful use of space by mankind, the relevant technology still makes the West restless.
From this point of view, in the context of the United States vs. China and Russia, it is suitable for Japan to seek some geopolitical and political dividends. Japan and China and Russia both have contradictions and disputes, and Japanese right-wing politicians have repeatedly shouted that they want to "seize the four northern islands by force" and have openly included the relevant content of "interference in China's internal affairs" in the defense white paper, which shows how inflated their ambitions are. It is clear that japan in the Indo-Pacific region is constantly "showing" its importance as the United States becomes increasingly weak. As long as it can "fit in" with the United States, the White House is very likely to further relax its control over Japan, and if it wants to vote for the United States, the most effective means for Tokyo is to challenge China and Russia.
Therefore, China and Russia need to be vigilant, although Japan is not large enough to challenge China and Russia head-on, but it can play a "disgusting" effect, and even to a certain extent, undermine the strategic balance of Northeast Asia.