US and Japanese soldiers have this week completed a joint training exercise along the coast of California that simulates invading islands captured by enemy troops.
Observers said it was a thinly veiled warning to China not to land forces on the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台).
“Memo to Beijing: Be forewarned,” an article in the New York Times said.
The amphibious operation has lasted for four-and-a-half weeks and involved more than 1,200 US Marines and 240 soldiers from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s Western Army Infantry Regiment.
Called “Exercise Iron Fist,” the training was part of a nine-year-old program, but this year’s event was especially significant considering current tensions in the East China Sea.
The Diaoyutai Islands have been at the center of growing political hostilities as a result of conflicting sovereignty claims by Japan, China and Taiwan.
The New York Times said that while US military officials said that “Iron Fist” had nothing to do with the Diaoyutai situation, Marine Commander Colonel John O’Neal said the Japanese team had “a new sense of purpose.”
“There are certainly current events that have added emphasis to this exercise,” O’Neal said. “Is there a heightened awareness? Yes.”
The Taipei Times recently reported that US Pacific Fleet Captain James Fanell believed that China was training its forces for a “short, sharp” war with Japan in the East China Sea.
US Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno was in Beijing last weekend trying to improve US-China military relations.
“This is really about expanding cooperation and managing competition,” he said. “We want to expand our cooperation at a very high level, deepen our cooperation in areas of mutual interest and then manage our differences constructively.”
“Annual training exercises with the Japanese help both of our militaries develop capabilities and skill sets essential to providing increased international security and improved prosperity,” O’Neal said.
He said that closely integrated exercises made the US and Japanese forces more familiar with each other’s capabilities and better able to respond “quickly and effectively” to future crises.
The exercises featured amphibious landing operations, fire support and forward observation, amphibious reconnaissance and advanced marksmanship.
“We have upped the ante with regards to the complexity of what we are doing,” O’Neal said.
Based in Camp Pendleton, the joint exercises stretched out across southern California.
The New York Times said the drills were the largest and most involved operation of their kind so far.
“The exercise included drones and the kinds of air support that would be needed to protect Japanese and American troops retaking an island,” the newspaper said.
Over the past months, there have also been reports of Chinese military exercises involving landings on small islands.
“There has been enough Chinese activity to justify this exercise,” a Washington-based military analyst said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2