Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday.
Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote.
To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said.
Photo: AP
Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence Party.
Yara denied receiving funding from China, but said that an independent Ryukyu would not need to fear Chinese invasion or economic pressure.
“China could have taken full control of the Ryukyus in the past, but it never did. Instead, it was the Japanese who invaded and forcibly established Okinawa Prefecture,” the Telegraph cited Yara as saying.
Beijing was also allegedly “playing up economic problems” in Okinawa, Japan’s poorest prefecture, the newspaper said.
Chinese state media tends to highlight crimes committed by US military personnel stationed in the region, and emphasize that while Okinawa only accounts for 0.6 percent of Japan’s total land area, it hosts 70 percent of all US military bases in the country, it said.
Chinese officials have allegedly approached ethnic Chinese living in Okinawa to help set up an “underground police station,” similar to those in other countries around the world, but those efforts were “understood to have been rebuffed,” it said.
Beijing is also believed to be spreading propaganda about Okinawa in China, with videos circulating on Chinese social media claiming that most residents in Okinawa support independence.
The Telegraph said that Japanese weekly news magazine Shukan Gendai reported that China plans to establish a “Ryukyu Research Center” at Dalian Maritime University, where academics would “strengthen China’s claims internationally” to the prefecture’s islands.
Chinese Society of the Law of the Sea president Gao Zhiguo (高之國) previously said that the “Ryukyu issue” concerns China’s “national security and national reunification.”
“This issue has profound political and historical significance, and various risk preparation plans and response measures must be prepared,” he said, alluding to Okinawa’s sovereignty and the US presence in the region.
Meanwhile, Beijing has been waging a “diplomatic charm offensive,” the British daily wrote, adding that senior Chinese officials have visited Okinawa on several occasions over the past year, including China’s consul general in Fukuoka, Yang Qingdong (楊慶東), who visited the prefecture twice in six months.
Yang was previously a Chinese intelligence official, and has held a post related to the administration of Chinese claims in the South China Sea, it said.
“I’m absolutely sure the Chinese are already in Okinawa and are trying to influence public opinion and their elected officials,” it cited Japanese Conservative Party official Yoichi Shimada as saying.
Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki “is a weak politician and he has welcomed friendly approaches from China because he is too trusting,” the Telegraph quoted Shimada as saying.
Tamaki visited China in the summer of 2023, during which he told Chinese state-run Global Times that he supported strengthening cultural, economic and other exchanges with China, it said.
Tamaki told the Chinese daily that the basic rights of Okinawans had been violated, and that “all Okinawans sincerely hope that Okinawa will never be forced to become a battlefield again.”
In Taipei, Kuma Academy chief executive officer Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) yesterday said that the US’ military bases in Okinawa are its closest to Taiwan and are key to the defense of the first island chain.
In particular, the US’ navy, air force and Marine Corps facilities and troops in Okinawa could quickly provide support to Taiwan in the event of a conflict with China, he said.
“Therefore, the neutralization of Okinawa is key to China’s military strategy. That is why it must erode the US-Japan security arrangement, and weaken the stability of the two countries’ joint defenses,” he said.
Taiwan should take the opportunity to negotiate with Japan on strengthening economic, trade and cultural exchanges with Okinawa to counter China’s attempts at influence and infiltration in the prefecture, he said.
“Deepening cooperation in areas such as the fisheries and the supply of daily necessities to Okinawa could be mutually beneficial,” he added. “We could consolidate our economic and strategic interests.”
Taiwan should fully use its geographical advantages, and work with friendly countries to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li
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
‘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
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
RSS