China constantly hasfour warships deployed around Taiwan, possibly to prevent the US military from approaching the island if conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday.
China launched large-scale military drills in August 2022 in response to then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and has been regularly deploying four frigates around Taiwan ever since, the newspaper reported yesterday, citing several Japanese government officials.
One of the four vessels is deployed around Yonaguni Island in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, the westernmost tip of Japan; one between Yonaguni Island and the Philippines; and one each in waters southwest and north of Taiwan, it said.
Photo: AP via Kyodo News
In addition, one vessel is said to be permanently deployed to the northwest of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台列嶼), also known as the Senkaku Islands in Japanese, it added.
Chinese warships are constantly present around the islands on three sides, it said, adding that if China decides to invade Taiwan, a conflict is likely to break out in the Senkaku Islands at the same time.
China has been strengthening its “anti-access/area denial” (A2/AD) capabilities, aiming to prevent the US military from entering the first island chain, which stretches from the Japanese archipelago to the Philippines, it said.
Former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force vice admiral Yoji Koda called on Japan to be “fully prepared” as China is highly likely to invade the Senkaku Islands by force if there is “an opening.”
The paper previously reported that since about 2020, China has been regularly deploying at least three naval vessels near the border of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) it declared in the East China Sea, multiple Japanese government officials were cited as saying.
In November 2013, China unilaterally declared its ADIZ, which includes the Senkaku Islands, going against international practice and not based on international law, the newspaper said.
The newspaper filmed a standoff between a Chinese Jiangkai II-class missile frigate and a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer inside the claimed zone on Dec. 30 last year, it said.
Chinese vessels and frigates, which are equipped with high-performance radars and are highly capable of shooting down aircraft, have maintained a regular presence, it said.
By doing so, China aims to prevent Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and the US military from entering the area during a Taiwan contingency, a Japan Self-Defense Forces official was quoted as saying.
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