Japan is bolstering its defense of a group of East China Sea islets that are also claimed by Taiwan and China, and other far-flung isles, with the establishment of a special police unit armed with automatic weapons, the public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday.
The police unit will be based on the southern island of Okinawa, which is 420km east of the disputed outcrops, which are controlled by Japan and known as the Senkakus in Japan and Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan and China.
“Assuming scenarios that include illegal landing by an armed group, highly trained members equipped with submachine guns will be deployed,” NHK said in its report.
It did not identify its sources.
Japan’s military and coastguard have boosted their postures around the disputed islands, but this will be the first time the police have set up a unit in the region to help defend them, NHK said.
No officials were immediately available for comment at the National Police Agency.
The police agency, in a budget request for the year from next April, is asking for 159 additional officers in Okinawa and Fukuoka, another southern prefecture, to boost its capability to respond to situations on remote islands, it said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) told a briefing yesterday that Beijing hoped Tokyo would act in accordance with their 2014 agreement on improving relations and “effectively strengthen crisis management and control and maintain the stability of the situation in the East China Sea.”
Japan’s relations with China have long been strained by the island row and the legacy of World War II.
In 2012, a group of Chinese activists landed on one of the disputed islets and raised a Chinese flag, to the outrage of Japan.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of