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• China seeks to divide Okinawa: report

  ‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported

  • By Sun Yu-ching and William Hetherington / Staff writers
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  Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday.

  Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote.

  To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said.

  

  A US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft takes off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture on Aug. 30, 2023.

  Photo: AP

  Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence Party.

  Yara denied receiving funding from China, but said that an independent Ryukyu would not need to fear Chinese invasion or economic pressure.

  “China could have taken full control of the Ryukyus in the past, but it never did. Instead, it was the Japanese who invaded and forcibly established Okinawa Prefecture,” the Telegraph cited Yara as saying.

  Beijing was also allegedly “playing up economic problems” in Okinawa, Japan’s poorest prefecture, the newspaper said.

  Chinese state media tends to highlight crimes committed by US military personnel stationed in the region, and emphasize that while Okinawa only accounts for 0.6 percent of Japan’s total land area, it hosts 70 percent of all US military bases in the country, it said.

  Chinese officials have allegedly approached ethnic Chinese living in Okinawa to help set up an “underground police station,” similar to those in other countries around the world, but those efforts were “understood to have been rebuffed,” it said.

  Beijing is also believed to be spreading propaganda about Okinawa in China, with videos circulating on Chinese social media claiming that most residents in Okinawa support independence.

  The Telegraph said that Japanese weekly news magazine Shukan Gendai reported that China plans to establish a “Ryukyu Research Center” at Dalian Maritime University, where academics would “strengthen China’s claims internationally” to the prefecture’s islands.

  Chinese Society of the Law of the Sea president Gao Zhiguo (高之國) previously said that the “Ryukyu issue” concerns China’s “national security and national reunification.”

  “This issue has profound political and historical significance, and various risk preparation plans and response measures must be prepared,” he said, alluding to Okinawa’s sovereignty and the US presence in the region.

  Meanwhile, Beijing has been waging a “diplomatic charm offensive,” the British daily wrote, adding that senior Chinese officials have visited Okinawa on several occasions over the past year, including China’s consul general in Fukuoka, Yang Qingdong (楊慶東), who visited the prefecture twice in six months.

  Yang was previously a Chinese intelligence official, and has held a post related to the administration of Chinese claims in the South China Sea, it said.

  “I’m absolutely sure the Chinese are already in Okinawa and are trying to influence public opinion and their elected officials,” it cited Japanese Conservative Party official Yoichi Shimada as saying.

  Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki “is a weak politician and he has welcomed friendly approaches from China because he is too trusting,” the Telegraph quoted Shimada as saying.

  Tamaki visited China in the summer of 2023, during which he told Chinese state-run Global Times that he supported strengthening cultural, economic and other exchanges with China, it said.

  Tamaki told the Chinese daily that the basic rights of Okinawans had been violated, and that “all Okinawans sincerely hope that Okinawa will never be forced to become a battlefield again.”

  In Taipei, Kuma Academy chief executive officer Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) yesterday said that the US’ military bases in Okinawa are its closest to Taiwan and are key to the defense of the first island chain.

  In particular, the US’ navy, air force and Marine Corps facilities and troops in Okinawa could quickly provide support to Taiwan in the event of a conflict with China, he said.

  “Therefore, the neutralization of Okinawa is key to China’s military strategy. That is why it must erode the US-Japan security arrangement, and weaken the stability of the two countries’ joint defenses,” he said.

  Taiwan should take the opportunity to negotiate with Japan on strengthening economic, trade and cultural exchanges with Okinawa to counter China’s attempts at influence and infiltration in the prefecture, he said.

  “Deepening cooperation in areas such as the fisheries and the supply of daily necessities to Okinawa could be mutually beneficial,” he added. “We could consolidate our economic and strategic interests.”

  Taiwan should fully use its geographical advantages, and work with friendly countries to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.

  Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li
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