Under the banner of "if there is something wrong with Taiwan, there is something wrong with Japan," Japan's recent series of moves to expand its armaments and meddle in the Taiwan Strait are alarming.
On April 10, local time, the leaders of Japan and the United States issued a joint statement in Washington, announcing a major upgrade of the Japan-US security alliance, the reorganization of the Joint Operations Command of the US military stationed in Japan, and the cooperation between the two countries in the production of weapons. The spearhead of the relevant statement is clearly aimed at China and the situation in the Taiwan Strait.
In Tan Zhu's view, another news reported by the media in Japan and Taiwan is more worthy of vigilance. Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported that "the Japanese government has designated 16 airports and harbors as 'trouble' bases", claiming that in order to strengthen its defense capability, the Japanese government has decided to designate 16 airports and ports in Hokkaido, Okinawa and other places as "special use airport ports", and to renovate and expand them, mainly considering concerns about China's maritime activities and "Taiwan incidents".
△ Screenshot of Japan's Kyodo News report
△ Japanese media illustrated 16 airports and harbors
Taiwan's "Liberty Times" reported with the title of "In response to 'Taiwan's incident', 5 airports and 11 ports will be expanded in Japan", emphasizing that Japan's planned airports and ports "include Naha Airport and Ishigaki Port in Okinawa Prefecture, which are closest to Taiwan."
Tan Zhu's research found that this seemingly inconspicuous news is actually extremely informative, and Japan, which has been planning for a long time, has bared its fangs and taken a substantial and dangerous step towards encroaching on the Taiwan Strait and undermining regional peace.
A sinister fall on the chessboard
Japan is militarizing 16 civilian airports and ports to allow for wartime take-off and landing of fighter jets and transport planes, as well as the docking of large ships. Master Tan carefully analyzed the deployment law of these 16 points, and the conclusion he got was really hair-wrenching.
First of all, seven points, including five airports and two ports, are located in Okinawa and Kyushu, which are highly targeted to the Diaoyu Islands and Taiwan in the southwest.
Wang Qiang, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Tan Zhu that this is related to the so-called "defense of the southwest islands" envisaged by the Japanese government. Japan has intensively adjusted its military deployment in the southwest, mainly concentrating on the key positions of the "first island chain" (a chain of islands stretching from the Japanese archipelago and the Ryukyu Islands and China's Taiwan Island in the north to the Philippines and the Greater Sunda Islands in the south) and at the key points in the Taiwan Strait. Japan's successive deployment of surveillance troops, missile units, and "amphibious mobile regiments" on Amami Oshima, Okinawa, Miyakojima, Ishigaki Island, Yonaguni Island, and other places is aimed at forming an offensive posture of "peacetime surveillance, wartime blockade, and even strike" in an attempt to gain sea and air supremacy in wartime and become a "military fortress" to intervene in the Taiwan Strait.
In recent years, Japan has intensively adjusted its military deployment in the southwest
Military expert Shao Yongling pointed out that the point that needs to be vigilant is Ishigaki Island, which is only about 230 kilometers away from Taiwan. In the event of a military conflict in the southwest, Ishigaki Island must be an important base for its advance. Now that Japan has purchased 400 Tomahawk missiles from the United States, and plans to extend the range of the missiles, if Japan deploys long-range missiles on Ishigaki Island, its range can basically cover a considerable part of Taiwan's air, water, and land. As a matter of fact, the Japanese Ministry of Defense began to deliver ammunition to the Ishigaki garrison last year to speed up the deployment of missile units, which shows that Japan is already making substantial preparations to stir up the Taiwan Strait.
△ Screenshot of media reports on the island
Tan also found that nearly half of the 16 points were related to the locations where the US military and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces were stationed. Naha Airport and Ishigaki Port are located in Okinawa, home to Kadena Air Base, the largest U.S. military base in the Far East, and five ports in Hokkaido, where many Japanese Self-Defense Forces are deployed.
Shao Yongling said in his analysis that from the perspective of the Japan-US alliance, it can be seen that Japan is making arrangements for Japan-US joint intervention in the "Taiwan Strait conflict" to make up for the dilemma that the United States is "beyond the reach of the whip" to intervene in the Taiwan Strait. The recent news of the reorganization of the Joint Operations Command of the US military stationed in Japan, as well as the previous report that Japan has begun to build a comprehensive Japanese-US military base on Mamao Island, its second largest uninhabited island, all point to this goal.
Japanese diplomat Son Saki Xiang also believes that the United States is considering how it can use the ports and airports of the Japanese mainland and the bases of the Self-Defense Forces to carry out military activities as if it were its own.
For some time now, Japan has strengthened its vigilance and surveillance forces on the southwestern islands, accelerated the deployment of its missile units, increased the construction of ammunition depots, and accelerated the building of its so-called "counterattack capability...... Japan's step-by-step military deployment is like dropping sinister chess pieces on a chessboard, gradually extending its military tentacles into the Taiwan Strait.
The wolf's ambition is to see the dagger
In fact, this trend has long been traced. Prior to this, Japanese politicians used the pretext that "if there is something wrong with Taiwan, there is something wrong with Japan," and for a long time they paved the way for public opinion.
In December 2021, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe first proposed that "Taiwan's emergency is Japan's emergency, that is, the emergency of the Japan-US alliance." In July 2022, Japan's defense white paper openly advocated that Japan would be affected if a conflict broke out in the Taiwan Strait. In January this year, Taro Aso, former Japanese prime minister and vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party, vainly claimed that "something happens in Taiwan" and that it will become a crisis that has a bearing on Japan's survival.
Experts on the island told Tan Zhu that "if there is something wrong with Taiwan, there is something wrong with Japan." Fundamentally speaking, this is an excuse for Japan, and it is not out of concern for Taiwan's interests in what it has done. Japan has its own insidious political agendas.
The first is to carry out the will of the United States and hold the thighs of the United States. Xie Nan, associate research fellow at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Tan Zhu that Japan has taken the initiative to implement the US strategy of "using Taiwan to contain China" in order to demonstrate Japan's sincerity in being a "tool country" of the United States and to strengthen Japan's role as the most important "thug" of the United States in East Asia.
More importantly, under the pretext of "something happens in Taiwan," we should push for a gradual military breakthrough and eventually achieve the so-called "normalization of the country." Military expert Liang Yongchun stressed: Japanese politicians have exaggerated the threat of war by hyping up "something happening in Taiwan" and have seized the opportunity to demand that the military loosen its bonds, expand its armaments, and remove the "tight spell" of the "peace constitution." The current upgrade of the Japan-US security alliance will completely change Japan's long-standing policy of "exclusive defense," and Japan's Self-Defense Forces will essentially become a real army.
Historically, the Japanese aggressors committed heinous crimes against Taiwan, and they have no right to be concerned about "something happening in Taiwan." The interviewed expert told Tan Zhu that in the 30 s of the last century, Japanese militarism once shouted that "there is something wrong with Manchuria" means that "there is something wrong with Japan," and as a result, it launched a war of aggression, and we must not allow history to repeat itself.
Lord Tan wants to say that the current actions of the Japanese government have exposed their wolf ambitions, and we must be highly vigilant. Japan follows the United States' move to intervene in the Taiwan Strait, and the PLA will never let it succeed. Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said a few days ago that the so-called "first island chain" is a product of geopolitics during the Cold War, and the PLA will deal a blow to any act of splitting China.
It is the Taiwan compatriots who need to be more vigilant against Japan, and Japan's involvement in the Taiwan Strait is absolutely a curse rather than a blessing for Taiwan. The DPP's selfish interests of one party to "curry favor with Japan and resist China" and lure the wolf into the house will inevitably bring disaster to the Taiwan Strait. In view of this, the Taiwan compatriots must have a clear understanding of the situation, heighten their vigilance, and resolutely oppose the DPP's dance to the occasion and thoroughly smash Japan's ambitions and schemes. If Japan dares to turn back the clock on history, then, as Taiwan's current affairs commentator Lai Yue-qian said, "new hatreds and old hatreds will be counted together"!
Source: Sun Moon Tan Tian