Japan has been mulling installing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system recently, according to a report by Japan's national public broadcaster NHK. It is said the system will be installed on Japanese turf before 2018.

Tokyo is bringing up THAAD just as China and South Korea are entangled in a dispute over the same thing. Going against China seems to have become the main theme of Japanese diplomacy.

It is only a matter of time before Japan has THAAD on its soil. After North Korea test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile in 1998, Japan soon brought in the US Theater Missile Defense system. Japan has fully become a part of the US global anti-missile system. It is believed that THAAD will be a boost to Japan's anti-missile capability, and as long as the US and Japan reach agreement, nobody can stop the new installation.

Washington is ambitious to build a global anti-missile system so missile activities in China and Russia can be put under close surveillance, which will disable China and Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence against the US.

The system can also serve as a powerful political bond and reinforce the US' alliance despite its relatively declining strength. For example, although the trade volume between China and South Korea has surpassed that between South Korea, the US and Japan combined, the THAAD deployment in South Korea can totally change the situation and bind it more tightly to the US.

The global anti-missile system is more of a geopolitical bargaining chip than a reliable combat-tested military tool. However, it is breaking the vulnerable balance under the principle of mutually assured destruction in the nuclear age. The special equilibrium is the basis of world peace. Thus, the global anti-missile system will only breed new turmoil as it develops.

It is highly impossible that the US will set up a reliable global anti-missile system, because compared with defensive weapons, offensive weapons are improving much more quickly, and can easily threaten anti-missile systems.

China is also in the first echelon in regards to anti-missile technologies, but it knows how costly and unrealistic it is to make the system 100 percent effective. Thus, China has put more effort into developing ballistic missile technologies. As THAAD is approaching its doorstep, China must speed up the upgrading of its offensive weaponry to offset the threat caused by the US global anti-missile system.

China and Russia should cooperate on the joint work of developing strategic offensive weaponry, and acquire an overwhelming advantage against the US anti-missile system. Both countries can conduct military simulations, which can include strategic nuclear weapons, against THAAD.

The US-Japan-South Korea coterie linked by THAAD is forming, and it is unknown whether China, Russia and North Korea will respond in unison. What is sure is Northeast Asia is under imminent threat of a new Cold War.