Taiwan & Japan falling out?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/89a41dc8-3b5e-11dd-8564-0000779fd2ac.html

A very interesting piece of news! This is an incident where it is quite clear that a stratagem is in place. The island chain Senkaku/Diaoyu/Tiaoyutai has long been disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan. Then unfortunately, a collision took place near the island chain between a Japan and Taiwan vessel. What happened next was rather intriguing; Taiwanese papers made a big fuss over this accident and various protests directed against Japan took place. Many wondered: isn't Japan one of Taiwan's closest allies? Why is Taiwan doing this to their "best friend"?

According to the no. 34 stratagem of the famed Thirty-Six Stratagems, aptly named 苦肉計 or literally translated as "Inflict injury on one's self to win the enemy's trust", one can pretend to be injured or harmed by a mutual enemy so as to gain the friendship of another enemy. In Taiwan's case, acting as if they were being "bullied" by the Japanese, they are trying to gain the trust of Beijing. Since President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan is keen on improving relationship with China, the outcome of this incident isn't that surprising. We can also see the United States stepping in to diffuse the situation; although I believe that their motives are not that simple, as closer ties between Taiwan and China certainly do not bode well for the influence of America in Asia.

However, I would like to warn Taiwan that Japan is a very valuable ally and it is indeed foolhardy to injure this relationship. It is well-known that China isn't very fond of Japan, so by distancing itself from Japan, Taiwan is showing that it is sincere in improving its relationship with China. But the cost for this strategy might be too heavy for Taiwan to bear, for their connections to Japan are perhaps one too many. In addition to the trade and tourism links, Japan hinted that it could possibly join the US in defending Taiwan during a cross-strait conflict.