Japan and the US are planning a joint naval exercise in southwestern Japanese waters later this year near islets disputed with Taiwan and China, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday.
The war games in December, to be joined by the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, are based on a scenario involving Japan recapturing an unnamed remote southwestern island from an enemy, the paper reported without citing sources.
Japan is to send fighters and patrol planes, as well as 250 paratroopers from transport planes guarded by F-15 fighters in the drill in Oita Prefecture, near Okinawa, the report said.
PHOTO: AFP/JIJI PRESS
The US and Japan usually stage their naval exercises east of Japan in the Pacific Ocean.
A Pentagon report warned this week that China’s rising defense power is changing East Asia’s military balance, a view shared by Japan, which has protested over several tense naval incidents with China this year.
INCIDENTS
Tokyo protested in April after a Chinese naval helicopter made a close fly-by of one of its destroyers on the high seas off the uninhabited Diaoyutais (釣魚台) — which are called Senkaku in Japan — during exercises.
A similar incident took place near the Ryukus in the same month, when 10 Chinese naval vessels, including two submarines, were seen sailing through international waters between Japan’s southernmost islands.
Japan’s defense ministry has said it will review the basing of its ground forces in coming years to strengthen the defense of the southwestern islands.
Meanwhile, Japanese foreign ministry press secretary Kazuo Kodama said the Senkaku are subject to the Japan-US security treaty, stressing that the allies would “respond together” to any attack there.
“We have not been notified by the United States that it has changed its stance” on the handling of the islands, Kodama said.
“It is natural that Japan and the United States respond together” if the islands are attacked, he said.
VIEW FROM TAIPEI
The Ministry of National Defense said it was verifying the report on the drills, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) reiterated Taiwan’s sovereignty over the Diaoyutais.
Deputy foreign ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said if the joint military exercise is to take place near the Diaoyutais, the ministry wanted to make clear that the atolls are the territory of the Republic of China (ROC) and there was no doubt that the ROC government has sovereignty over the islands.
Chang urged all involved to set their differences aside and seek acceptable solutions through rational and peaceful means.
DEFENSE REVIEW
In related news, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan met his military chiefs yesterday ahead of a review that could lead to the biggest changes in defense policy in years, including easing restraints imposed by the Constitution drawn up after World War II.
A panel of experts is likely to issue recommendations this month for a policy review expected to be finished by year-end, with media reports saying it will urge Japan to to beef up its ability to respond to multiple attacks and also review a defense posture that relies heavily on the US nuclear deterrent.
“The role of the Self-Defense Forces is becoming increasingly important for the peace of Japan,” Kan said. “I want you to give me your candid views.
Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told reporters after the meeting that Kan and the four chiefs of staff discussed issues including North Korea and China, but he did not elaborate.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING, VINCENT Y. CHAO AND STAFF WRITER
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS