A China researcher on Sunday called on the government to pursue joint rescue drills with Japan, citing increasing support for Taiwan among high-level Japanese officials.
Japan this week engaged in joint rescue and humanitarian drills with the Philippine military in northern Luzon Island. Taiwan’s participation in such drills would be possible, as they are aimed at improving humanitarian missions, rather than offensive capabilities, the researcher said, adding that branches of the military could participate on a rotational basis.
Such drills are more likely now than ever before, given support in Japan for Taiwan’s defense. Japanese Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi and Japanese State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama have spoken about the importance of defending Taiwan against military aggression.
During a political fundraising event in Tokyo on Monday, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said that Japan and the US would need to defend Taiwan together in the event of a “major problem,” Bloomberg cited Kyodo News as saying.
Japanese officials are rightly concerned that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would present an existential threat to Japan. Tokyo and Beijing have clashed numerous times over the contested Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), which Japan administers as the Senkaku Islands. If China were to take Taiwan, there is no question that it would take the Diaoyutais next, and emboldened by success there, it would likely have ambitions for Okinawa — if for no other reason than to push the US out of its military base there.
Control of Taiwan would also mean China would have control over the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) and Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), effectively extending its control throughout the South China Sea. Such a scenario would give China control over passages through the important shipping lanes of the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
China would like the world to believe its interest in Taiwan comes from kinship, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) often using phrases such as “both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family” and “the motherland [must be] peacefully unified.”
However, early maps of the People’s Republic of China did not include Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ambitions regarding Taiwan likely started off as nothing more than wanting total annihilation of the Republic of China (ROC), the administration of which fled to Taiwan proper and its outlying islands, where it remains today. The CCP symbolically achieved this aim when it effectively pressured the US and other major economies to adhere to its “one China” policy, and the ROC exited the UN.
The CCP has been pretending for the past several decades that the ROC no longer exists, but it would likely want to solidify that claim once and for all by annexing Taiwan.
Of greater importance to the CCP is the strategic military value of Taiwan. Control of the nation would cement China’s role as a regional hegemony and would push the US out. Tokyo and Washington are clearly well aware of this, which is why they have been engaging in more joint drills in the region and have invited other regional countries to participate.
“In many ways, the People’s Liberation Army drove the US and Japan together and toward new thinking on Taiwan,” the Financial Times on June 30 quoted former US assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs Randall Schriver as saying. “Assertiveness around the Senkaku and Taiwan at the same time drives home the issue of proximity.”
The government should take advantage of this awareness of the China threat to participate in joint drills with friendly neighbors. While it is growing more likely that Taiwan would not face China alone, it must be ready to coordinate with others on its defense.
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