A retired Japanese admiral yesterday called on the US, Japan and Taiwan to form a direct trilateral communication channel to share intelligence to jointly prevent a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Former Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force chief of staff Tomohisa Takei told a forum in Taipei that territorial disputes in the West Pacific have intensified over the past decade as China sees territorial ownership as “an issue that can never be conceded.”
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) assumed power, China has made it clear that the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), also known as Senkaku Islands in Japanese, and Taiwan are “at the very core of Chinese core interests,” Takei said.
Photo: CNA
“From this point of view, Japan and Taiwan are inseparably linked in many ways. In particular, the two are in the same boat when it comes to national security,” he said.
Taiwan, Japan and China all claim sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands in the East China Sea.
However, the Japanese government was less aware of Taiwan’s geopolitical value to it or the connections between the two countries, Takei said.
“First, what would happen if Taiwan were somehow integrated into China? And second, if Japan and the US fail to defend Taiwan, even in a gray zone situation, a completely different world will emerge in East Asia,” he said.
To prevent such a scenario, the retired admiral said Tokyo needed to strengthen its military cooperation with the US and continue to beef up its own defense capabilities amid China’s continuous defense build-up.
In terms of the US-Japan alliance, Tokyo also needs to elevate its security cooperation with Washington, he said.
He said there should be a “direct triangle approach” between Taiwan and Japan, with the US in the middle.
The Taiwan-US-Japan triangle framework should include information sharing and promote closer coordination on various fronts, Takei said.
He also suggested that Japan continue to strengthen its defense capabilities to complement US attempts to extend its arms posture and its deterrence.
At the same forum, Rick Waters, a former US deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Beijing, including the China Coast Guard, has been very active in deploying “gray zone” tactics in the Indo-Pacific region over the past decade.
The world has witnessed “this emergence of a stronger China, with composite national power now being applied through a multidimensional gray-zone strategy and an arc that spans from India through the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, into the East China Sea,” said Waters, now the managing director of Eurasia Group’s China practice.
Beijing’s growing threat has led countries in the region to stand closer, leading to the reshaping of the US-Japan defense alliance to include South Korea and the Philippines, he said.
“So we are starting to see them rely more on each other,” he said.
The issue of Taiwan Strait security also affects others around the globe, which is why the G7, NATO and the EU have over the past few years begun to talk more about the importance of peace and stability and upholding these norms in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
The two speakers made their remarks during the morning session of the Ketagalan Forum, a government-founded annual international seminar with a focus on security issues in the Indo-Pacific region.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS