Kyle Wang
AP Government
Salisbury
October 3, 2013
Current Event #3- U.S. Drones Stationing in Japan The U.S. nation government has announced the Thursday of October 3, 2013, that the U.S. military will begin deploying drones in Japan in order to spy on North Korea. These surveillance drones will supposedly monitor North Korean actions as the previous base in Guam in which the drones were deployed are too far away from North Korea to reach their destination. The close proximity of the drone’s base to China is worrying to the Chinese government as there have been multiple Chinese protests to the drones being in Japan. U.S., Japanese, and Chinese relationships have been strained as all three countries are well-respected adversaries as well as partners, but the issues of the Senkaku islands which are in hot debate presently are escalating tensions. The issue of the drones is the geographical location of the base. Although the exact base is unspecified, the long rage Global Hawk surveillance drones are well in proximity to China in any location in Japan. Domestically, the drones also pose an issue as the agreement with Japan was made during the highly contested government shutdown domestically. The agreement has been announced for the U.S. military to start deploying these surveillance drones starting only next year. This issue is highly disputed due to the previous foreign power struggle existing in Eastern Asia beforehand as well as the fact that surveillance drones are being set very near to China which is one of the biggest competitors globally against the United States. Similar to early World War II, there seems to be a very big powder keg growing in Eastern Asia. The Chinese government has a right to be concerned of the surveillance drones in Japan due to the agreement to allow the drones in Japan not involving China, as well as the concerns for future long rage weaponry that may be stationed in Japan. Since the decision to allow drones in Japan did not have any Chinese as the article only mentions U.S. and Japanese officials in the agreement, the Chinese have a right to be concerned about international issues taking place so close to their motherland. (Whitlock, 2013) This situation is reminiscent of the United States at the Bay of Pigs during the Cold War. In the Bay of Pigs incident, because the Soviet Union had nuclear missiles so close to the United States homeland, the United States fought Cuba for the