Japan's military has drawn up a defense plan that refers to the possibility of an invasion by China, the Asahi Shimbun national daily said yesterday.
In one scenario, drawn up at a time of tense relations between Tokyo and Beijing, China occupies the disputed islands known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China.
In another scenario, the plan reportedly also lays out the possibility of a military conflict between China and Taiwan, with the US backing Taiwan.
In the scenario, Japan would support such US operations and might come under attack from China.
However, the top-secret plan, drawn up by senior officers in what Japan calls the Ground Self-Defense Force, says there is only a slight possibility of an attack by China, the paper said.
The plan laid out various possibilities for a period between last year through 2008 and is considered a national secret, the newspaper said.
Although the plan does not expect a Japan-China conflict to become a serious possibility, it shows for the first time that Japanese defense officials formulated military strategies to counter China, the Asahi said.
This reflects a shift from their previous focus on a possible Soviet attack in northern Japan, it said.
The report comes weeks after a separate Japanese defense white paper referred to the need to monitor Chinese military modernization, sparking an angry reaction from Beijing.
Japan and China are at loggerheads over a range of issues from rights over natural resources in the East China Sea to the way World War II history is taught in Japanese schools.
Earlier this month, Japan said it had sighted five Chinese warships in the East China Sea, where China is developing a gas field close to an area also claimed by Japan.
‘UNACCEPTABLE’: The foreign ministry said that China’s behavior broke international law, while Johnny Chiang was worried such balloons could be used against Taiwan A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the US was yesterday condemned by officials in Taipei and sparked calls for the government to plan countermeasures. The Pentagon on Thursday said it had detected a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the country. Beijing has said the balloon is a civilian meteorological device that drifted into US territory after being blown off course. The National Security Bureau and Ministry of National Defense should investigate whether surveillance balloons could be used against Taiwan and prepare to respond to such acts, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s postponement
INTELLIGENCE VALUE: While the US was working on recovering the balloon’s remains, China said that it reserved ‘the right to make ... necessary responses’ US President Joe Biden’s administration lauded the Pentagon for shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the US Atlantic coast on Saturday, but China angrily voiced its “strong dissatisfaction” at the move, and said it might make “necessary responses.” The craft spent several days flying over North America before it was targeted off the coast of the southeastern state of South Carolina with a missile fired from an F-22 plane, Pentagon officials said. It fell into relatively shallow water just 14m deep. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called the operation a “deliberate and lawful action” that came in response to China’s
RISK FACTOR: ASEAN issued a statement saying the cross-strait situation ‘could lead to miscalculation,’ but it is willing to facilitate dialogue to ensure stability in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed a joint statement by ASEAN leaders voicing concerns that the situation across the Taiwan Strait could affect regional stability. The statement was issued after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat ended on Saturday in Jakarta. It was the first major meeting since Indonesia assumed chairmanship of ASEAN this year. Attendees of the meeting reiterated their determination to promote “sustainable peace, security, stability, and prosperity within and beyond the region,” the statement said. They expressed concerns about developments across the Taiwan Strait and their “implications on regional stability,” the statement said. The cross-strait situation “could lead to miscalculation, serious
THINK TANK VISIT: The former US Indo-Pacific official said that a capture of Taiwan’s outlying islands by China rather than a large-scale attack is a grave security concern The US and Taiwan can deepen their relations on many fronts, former head of the US Indo-Pacific Command Philip Davidson said yesterday while visiting President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Presidential Office. Davidson is leading a six-member delegation from the National Bureau of Asian Research, a US-based think tank. They arrived on Monday and are scheduled to depart tomorrow. Tsai met with the delegation yesterday morning, welcoming the organization on its first visit to Taiwan since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the office said in a statement. She thanked Davidson, a retired admiral, for paying close attention to matters regarding the Taiwan