Abstract
Last week the US flew two B-52 bombers over the remote, uninhabited Senkaku Island group in a show of force for an audience of one. Whether he enjoyed the show from his seat in Beijing or not, Chinese president Xi Jinping was no doubt smiling. The Americans finally take the dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku islands seriously. It took a brazen extension of China’s “air defense zone” over the islands with a warning of possible military reaction against non-compliant aircraft to accomplish this. But the provocation worked.