More than 90 percent of Japanese believe Japan should prepare for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a Nikkei poll released on Monday found.
On how to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan, 41 percent of respondents said Japan should improve its capability of responding to a conflict in Taiwan by revising its laws, while 50 percent said the country should prepare within the existing legal framework and 4 percent said preparations are not needed.
In addition, 56 percent of respondents approved of a proposal by the Liberal Democratic Party-led government to increase the defense budget to 1 percent of Japan’s GDP, while 31 percent disapproved, marking little change from a poll last month.
Photo: AFP
About 60 percent of respondents agreed with preserving a military capability to strike back at an enemy — twice as many as the 30 percent who opposed the notion.
Under current Japanese law, Japan may exercise the right to self-defense if it or a close ally, such as the US, came under military attack.
However, Tokyo lacks the legal authority to build up stockpiles or render other military assistance to its allies unless the emergency is formally recognized, Yoji Koda, former commander-in-chief of the Japanese Self-Defense Fleet, was cited as saying.
Russia amassed forces near the borders of Ukraine before invading, which suggests a similar military buildup would precede a military invasion of Taiwan, he said.
That Japan “has no law that allows the US military to temporarily stockpile huge amounts of fuel and ammunition during normal times” might impede Japan’s ability to provide logistical support for US operations throughout the Indo-Pacific region, he added.
The poll, conducted by Nikkei Research from Friday through Sunday by telephone among Japanese men and women aged 18 or older, drew 935 valid samples and had a response rate of 41.4 percent.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
RSS