BEIJING - A senior US security official, in an interview with Kyodo News, has warned that the announcement of another air defense identification zone (ADIZ) by China would trigger an expansion of US military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

However, the warning of Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian affairs at the US National Security Council, is unfounded as he might have not realized that the real threat to the region comes from Japan, not China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his right-leaning government are the source of surging tensions and hostility in the region.

In his 2014 State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama said his country will continue to focus on the Asia-Pacific and support its allies in the region. But if the United States continues to spoil trouble-making Japan, more provocative actions are expected from Tokyo. As a result, the regional situation would turn messier to a point that regional security and economic interests of various countries would be jeopardized.

China's establishment of ADIZ in the East China Sea, as a defensive measure to safeguard national air security, is in line with international law and practice, and does not affect the freedom of civil aviation. No one is in a position to point a finger.

Nevertheless, the Japanese government is trying to fabricate "China threat" as an excuse to revise its pacifist constitution so that Japan can wage war.

Thus, it is high time for the Obama administration to see through Abe's political tricks and to cage the trigger-happy elements in Japan.

To pamper an ambitious ally that refuses to reflect on its own history of aggression and that is eager to challenge the post-war world order will wreck havoc in the region and the world as a whole.