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.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
RSS