The highest-ranking US military officer yesterday encouraged Japan’s commitment to doubling its defense spending over the next five years, calling Tokyo’s push for a stronger military crucial to confront rising threats from North Korea and China.
US General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned Japan’s need for improvements in cruise missile defense, early warning missile systems and air capabilities, all of which would help the US as it looks to counter North Korea’s push for a nuclear missile program capable of targeting the US mainland and China’s increasing aggression against Taiwan.
China has “invested enormously in their military, and aspire to be the regional power in the next 10 to 15 years,” Milley said.
Photo: AP
That “could be very unstable; it could be very dangerous, and I think having a powerful Japan, a militarily capable Japan that has a close alliance with the United States and other countries, will go a long way to deterring war,” he said.
Milley’s comments to reporters at the US ambassador’s residence in Tokyo provide an explicit US military analysis of the security situation in northeast Asia.
Washington wants its allies, particularly in Tokyo and Seoul, to do more.
Milley also addressed the most recent missile test-launch by North Korea, a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that he said “clearly demonstrates an intent to develop a capability to strike the continental United States.”
While not providing specifics about the North’s missile program, he said: “It has our attention.”
Japan’s budget for the next fiscal year provides a record ￥6.8 trillion (US$49 billion) in defense spending, up 20 percent from a year earlier.
That includes ￥211.3 billion for deployment of US-made long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles that can be launched from warships and can hit targets up to 1,600km away.
The defense budget is the first installment of a five-year, ￥43 trillion military spending plan as part of Japan’s new National Security Strategy, which was announced in December last year.
The new spending target meets NATO standards and would eventually push Japan’s annual defense budget to about ￥10 trillion, the world’s third-biggest after the US and China.
“I have no doubt that the Japanese military could rapidly expand in scale, size, scope and skill very, very fast,” Milley said.
‘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
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS