TOKYO: Despite the potential for escalating tensions, analysts believe that Japan's actions to protect its security in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait are part of what is perceived as China's increasing assertiveness in claiming the island. necessary to compete.
China has conducted its largest military exercise near the island in decades since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, and Taiwan's defense ministry reported last week that it had shot down several Chinese planes and ships in the region. saw.
In an effort to counter threats from China and Russia, Japan announced on Wednesday that it will develop and mass-produce a cruise missile and a high-velocity ballistic missile. The Defense Ministry has requested to increase the expenditure to US$ 39.78 billion, although this amount may increase taking into account other procurement plans.
To prevent China from furthering its military activities, Fumiko Sasaki, an international relations specialist focusing on Asian and Japanese politics at Columbia University in New York, said that Japan should improve its military capabilities in the Southwest region and Change was expected. More force there.
Additionally, Tokyo is likely to move troops to Yonaguni and Miyako, two Japanese islands close to Taiwan, transfer military personnel to the Navy and Air Force, and improve its ability to monitor Chinese military activities. Used to be.
For example, by providing maritime security and capacity-building measures, Sasaki said, Japan "will and (also) should strengthen cooperation between regionally facing China, such as Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines."
In August, five Chinese missiles also landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, a project assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Advanced Science and Technology Research Center, described the exercises as "basically a partial dry run of sea barriers and missile strikes against both Taiwan and the southwestern islands of Japan". described.
He added that Japan and US forces would be targeted if a conflict did occur in the Taiwan Strait, and that Tokyo needed to improve its preparedness in air defence, maritime control, even cyber and hybrid warfare, with Simultaneously, there is a need to increase our forward and overseas deployment. ,
According to Zhao Tong, a security expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Japan is working to thwart unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the region and develop the ability to counter them.
"Japan's ability to counter-attack will pose little threat to parties that have no intention of changing the status quo through coercion," Zhao said. ,
Washington has been urging Tokyo to increase defense spending and strengthen its capabilities for years, according to Grant Newsham, senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.
"Thanks to the aggressive behavior of the Chinese Communist Party, the Japanese have finally woken up and are moving to strengthen their defences," Newsham said. From 2016 to 2020, China built more warships than all of Japan's maritime self-defense. might. "Now he's raising the stakes."
President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for saying that Tokyo and the US-Japan alliance would be in an emergency if China attacked Taiwan when a delegation of Japanese lawmakers visited Taiwan last week. did.
According to Jonathan Berkshire Miller, a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, the visit should not be seen as provocative.
Miller said the Taiwan Strait tension is being viewed by Japan as "severely destabilizing" to its security as both Tokyo and Seoul depend on an open strait for the flow of goods and energy supplies. "(This) is not a sign that Tokyo has changed its approach to any potential independence push by Taipei," Miller said.
"Planning for the potential for increased instability in the strait, including contingency planning with the US, will remain an important area of ​​focus," he said, adding that Japan will also complete revision of its key defense and security documents.
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