Comnmentary Chinese decision-makers and national security experts must be delighted about Japan’s failure to respond in any meaningful way to China’s decision to allow its Coast Guard to “fire upon vessels around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.”  Japan’s failure to come up with an answer to China’s Coast Guard ships now in Japan’s territorial waters in the Senkaku Islands could well lead to China’s occupation of all or part of the Senkakus. If China in fact goes ahead and moves military and occupation forces into all or part of the Senkakus, it would replicate what it previously carried out in the South China Sea. China claims sovereignty over the Senkakus, but like its claims to the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, these claims are not recognized by any state. Under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between Japan and the United States the parties agreed …