An independent Taiwan is in the best interest of Japan’s national security, three Japanese academics said at a forum in Taipei yesterday, calling Taiwan “Japan’s lifeline” because of its geographic importance.
Gomi Mutsuyoshi, a research associate who specializes in navy warfare at the Defense Research Center (DRC) in Japan, told an audience at a forum hosted by the Taiwan National Security Institute that Taiwan’s position in the middle of the Pacific Asian region would be highly coveted by any country that seeks to dominate the area.
“Japan is an oceanic country that relies heavily on the use of sea lanes, especially the East Sea [Sea of Japan], for foreign exported natural resources such as oil. For the Japanese, security on the sea lane is a matter of life and death,” he said.
If China annexed Taiwan, he said, the Chinese would undoubtedly use Taiwan as a navy base to bolster its influence over the region, which would directly threaten Japan’s mobility and national security.
“Taiwan is Japan’s lifeline,” he said. “We as Japanese must be keenly aware of the negative causal effects of being complacent about China’s ambition to take over Taiwan.”
DRC director Ueda Naruhiko said that at the moment Japanese commercial fleets have few problems while traveling in the vicinity of Taiwan, but the situation could take a sharp downward turn if Taiwan unifies with China.
“The Japanese people should view the Taiwan Strait security issue as an issue of their own,” he said. “While it is important to maintain a friendly Japan-China relationship, we also must actively contemplate building positive working relations with Taiwan.”
Sugiyama Katsumi, another DRC research associate and a Meikai University professor, told the forum that Taiwanese, being historically agrarian and nomadic, possess the rare genetic make-up to be aggressive and pacifying at the same time, which makes Taiwanese ideal to help contribute to solving some of the world’s major conflicts.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.