US and Japanese soldiers have this week completed a joint training exercise along the coast of California that simulates invading islands captured by enemy troops.
Observers said it was a thinly veiled warning to China not to land forces on the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台).
“Memo to Beijing: Be forewarned,” an article in the New York Times said.
The amphibious operation has lasted for four-and-a-half weeks and involved more than 1,200 US Marines and 240 soldiers from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s Western Army Infantry Regiment.
Called “Exercise Iron Fist,” the training was part of a nine-year-old program, but this year’s event was especially significant considering current tensions in the East China Sea.
The Diaoyutai Islands have been at the center of growing political hostilities as a result of conflicting sovereignty claims by Japan, China and Taiwan.
The New York Times said that while US military officials said that “Iron Fist” had nothing to do with the Diaoyutai situation, Marine Commander Colonel John O’Neal said the Japanese team had “a new sense of purpose.”
“There are certainly current events that have added emphasis to this exercise,” O’Neal said. “Is there a heightened awareness? Yes.”
The Taipei Times recently reported that US Pacific Fleet Captain James Fanell believed that China was training its forces for a “short, sharp” war with Japan in the East China Sea.
US Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno was in Beijing last weekend trying to improve US-China military relations.
“This is really about expanding cooperation and managing competition,” he said. “We want to expand our cooperation at a very high level, deepen our cooperation in areas of mutual interest and then manage our differences constructively.”
“Annual training exercises with the Japanese help both of our militaries develop capabilities and skill sets essential to providing increased international security and improved prosperity,” O’Neal said.
He said that closely integrated exercises made the US and Japanese forces more familiar with each other’s capabilities and better able to respond “quickly and effectively” to future crises.
The exercises featured amphibious landing operations, fire support and forward observation, amphibious reconnaissance and advanced marksmanship.
“We have upped the ante with regards to the complexity of what we are doing,” O’Neal said.
Based in Camp Pendleton, the joint exercises stretched out across southern California.
The New York Times said the drills were the largest and most involved operation of their kind so far.
“The exercise included drones and the kinds of air support that would be needed to protect Japanese and American troops retaking an island,” the newspaper said.
Over the past months, there have also been reports of Chinese military exercises involving landings on small islands.
“There has been enough Chinese activity to justify this exercise,” a Washington-based military analyst said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS