Wednesday, August 21, 2019

In Response To China's Repeated Aeiral And Maritime Incursions Japan Is In A Rush To Build Bases On Its Southwestern Islands


Washington Post: Japan builds an ‘island wall’ to counter China’s intensifying military, territorial incursions

MIYAKO, Japan — A high-stakes “game of chicken” is playing out in the East China Sea, as Beijing pokes and provokes Tokyo with an intensifying campaign of aerial and maritime encroachments designed to challenge Japan’s control of disputed islands.

Every day, around the clock, Japan scrambles fighter jets and dispatches coast guard vessels to counter some new Chinese provocation and ward off the intruding boats and planes. It is also building a “wall” of defensive installations, including missile bases, along the chain of subtropical, touristed islands that make up the archipelago’s southwestern arc.

“China wants to change the status quo, but it does not want a military confrontation,” said Michael Bosack, a special adviser at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies in Japan. “The problem here is that miscalculation may lead to confrontation and/or escalation.”

The contest has prompted a shift in Japan’s defense strategy. Over the past few years, the country has significantly expanded its air force and coast guard bases centered on the southwestern island of Okinawa, which already hosts tens of thousands of U.S. troops and the largest U.S. air base in the Asia-Pacific.

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WNU Editor: It is obvious from the graph above that in 2011 China made the decision to test Japan's territorial claims, and they have not stopped since then.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nonono! This is China's territory - all of it, including where you are from, wnu.. you will see

Bob Huntley said...

No Chinese love lost for the Japanese. Similarly both Koreas.

Anonymous said...

No love lost for the troll (purportedly a Canadian) and most of the WNU readership.

Bob Huntley said...

So you avoided a ticket when you wife, Gloria, smiled at the cop.