Are The US And Japan Sending A Message To China?

War Games Near California: Are The US And Japan Sending A Message To China? -- Justin McCurry, Christian Science Monitor

The joint military exercises are in response to Japan's nervousness about China's interest in disputed islands in the East China Sea.

A series of unprecedented joint drills, code-named Dawn Blitz, began earlier this month between the United States and Japan off the coast of California with a specific aim: a joint amphibious assault on the island after it has been seized by a small, but heavily armed, invading force.

San Clemente Island, located about 75 miles northwest of San Diego, is acting as a surrogate for the disputed island chain known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Japanese officials insist publicly that the drills are not targeting a third country, adding that the island's identity is purely hypothetical.

The exercise has added to tensions thousands of miles away in waters near the Senkaku Islands, a group of islands in the East China Sea that the Japanese government bought from their private owners last year, triggering violent protests in China and sending Sino-Japanese ties to their lowest point in years.

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My Comment: Even the Russians are aware that these exercises are simulating a Chinese invasion .... but the Chinese (at least publicly) are not interested in listening to the U.S. or to anyone else..