Give all this, there are reasons to presume that the new president may change his nation's foreign policy in a manner that could affect Japan's security. Condoleezza Rice, who will be Bush's National Security Advisor, is known for her unambiguous anti-China stance. Its military power is currently no match for that of the United States. But that condition is not necessarily permanent. What we do know is that China is a great power with unresolved vital interests, particularly concerning Taiwan and the South China Sea.
China resents the role of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Blue Team claims responsibility for the Cox investigation into alleged Chinese spying in the US and the formulation of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act, which sought to provocatively bolster US military assistance to Taiwan. Discussion in Japan has focused on a US Institute for National Strategic Studies report co-authored by one of Bush's main Asia policy advisors, former Reagan Assistant Secretary of Defence Richard Armitage, and the former Democrat Assistant Secretary of Defence Joseph Nye. Published in October, the report has been taken in Japanese ruling circles as the most likely direction US policy will take under the new administration due to Armitage's standing with Bush. An essential, if unstated, theme of the report is that the US and Japan have mutual interests in blocking China's emergence as a rival to their regional hegemony in Asia. It calls for greater US-Japanese military cooperation and, most controversially in Japan, the removal of the constitutional obstacles to the use of the Japanese armed forces overseas.