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China-Japan-Koreas
Japan puts radar on Yonaguni in South China Sea
2014-04-21
HT: Drudge.
YONAGUNI, Japan -- Japan began its first military expansion at the western end of its island chain in more than 40 years on Saturday, breaking ground on a radar station on a tropical island off Taiwan.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who attended a ceremony on Yonaguni island to mark the start of construction, suggested the military presence could be enlarged to other islands in the seas southwest of Japan's main islands.

"This is the first deployment since the U.S. returned Okinawa (1972) and calls for us to be more on guard are growing," Onodera told reporters. "I want to build an operation able to properly defend islands that are part of Japan's territory."

The military radar station on Yonaguni, part of a longstanding plan to improve defense and surveillance, gives Japan a lookout just 150 km (93 miles) from the Japanese-held islands claimed by China.

Building the base could extend Japanese monitoring to the Chinese mainland and track Chinese ships and aircraft circling the disputed crags, called the Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyu by China.

The 30 sq km (11 sq mile) Yonanguni is home to 1,500 people and known for strong rice liquor, cattle, sugar cane and scuba diving. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to put troops there shows Japan's concerns about the vulnerability of its thousands of islands and the perceived threat from China.

The new base "should give Japan the ability to expand surveillance to near the Chinese mainland," said Heigo Sato, a professor at Takushoku University and a former researcher at the Defense Ministry's National Institute for Defense Studies.

"It will allow early warning of missiles and supplement the monitoring of Chinese military movements."

China's decision last year to establish an air-defence identification zone in the East China Sea, including the skies above the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islets, rattled Tokyo. Japanese and Chinese navy and coastguard ships have played cat-and-mouse around the uninhabited islands since Japan nationalized the territory in 2012. Japanese warplanes scrambled against Chinese planes a record 415 times in the year through to March, the Defence Ministry said last week.

Tapping concern about China, Abe raised military spending last fiscal year for the first time in 11 years to help bolster Japan's capability to fight for islands with a new marine unit, more longer-range aircraft, amphibious assault vehicles and helicopter carriers. Japan's thousands of islands give it nearly 30,000 km (18,600 miles) of coastline to defend.
Posted by:Steve White

#6  a Joe-Valanche!
Posted by: Frank G   2014-04-21 21:53  

#5  De latest this Guam AM ...

* DEFENCE.POK/FORUMS > BEIJING ASKS TOKYO TO EXPLAIN NEW RADAR BASE, on Yonaguni as so close to the "Chinese Diaoyus".

* RELATED BHARAT RAKSHAK > JAPAN LAUNCHES NEW AWACS UNIT [ASDF] IN OKINAWA.

Naha.

* WORLD NEWS > [Business Insider] THE DANGEROUS ESCALATING GAME OF MILITARY CHICKEN BETWEEN CHINA + JAPAN.

"Escalating" it will until Rising China = OWG Co-Superpower China gets back TAIWAN + DESIRED OVERSEAS PLA MILBASES.

* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [AEI] CHINESE COURT ORDERS JAPANESE BOAT SEIZED FOR WARTIME COMPENSATION, i.e. Nippon's failure to pay same stemming as far back as the 1930's.

IMO the larger or broader issue here is the LEGAL + DIPLOMATIC PRECEDENCE being set to demand-n-seize the sovereign territories or assets of Third-Party Nations for Debt.

Again - GUAM-WESTPAC? CNMI? HAWAII? 1/2-PLUS OF CONUS-NORAM?

MULTI-NATIONALS, INDUSTRIAL SECTORS???

versus

* IIRC FREEREPUBLIC > WAKE UP, AMERICA! OBAMA IS TAKING AWAY OUR NATION'S ABILITY TO DEFEND ITSELF.

Again, 1990's CLINTONISM = AMERICA MUST BE RESTRAINED + CONTROLLED.

* TOPIX > [AEI} CAN OBAMA SAVE HIS MIGHTY PIVOT?

He may iff he can make Guam + CNMI into a US State???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2014-04-21 20:42  

#4  Same story but includes video, map and links to related articles...

I like to see video of these picturesque little islands whenever possible. Strong rice liquor sounds interesting too.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2014-04-21 13:40  

#3  OOOOOPPPPSSS, forgot TOPIX, BIGNEWSNETWORK > CHINESE SHIPS REMAIN JUST OUTSIDE JAPAN WATERS.

Guam-CNMI???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2014-04-21 02:24  

#2  I'm telling local McDonald's patrons-asscoiates that I'm eager to finally see Tom Cruise's new flick "EDGE OF TOMMORROW" [Live, Die, Repeat] also starring Emily Blunt, as I've had dreams or visions of that movie from many years + decades ago when I was younger.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2014-04-21 02:22  

#1  The containment noose around China in East Asia, ECS + SCS + IOR, is steadily tightening.

* See INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [Japan Times]MILITARY [Japan SDF] RISKS CHINA'S WRATH WITH FIRST MOVE WEST IN 40 YEARS.

* STARS-N-STRIPES > JAPAN PREPARES END TO BAN ON [MilPol] DEFENDING ALLIES.

RELATED ...
> WORLD NEWS [old] = HAGEL: US SUPPORTS THE MILITARIZATION OF JAPAN IN RESPONSE TO CHINA.
> TOPIX > CHINA REPEATS CLAIMS TO SOUTH CHINA SEA AS ITS TERRITORIAL WATERS, NO NEED FOR UN ARBITRATION.

Again, iff China + PLA must make a mil move, it must do so before Japan + other US Allies in East Asia acquire NucWeapons, + US-led Missle Defense = GMD-TMD [circa 2018].

VERSUS

* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Global Times Op-Ed]
US COMMANDER'S REMARKS CAN'T INTIMIDATE CHINA MILITARY.

US Marine Forces, Okinawa Chief LTG John Wissler.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > POSTER THREAD: HOW WILL THE US MARINES RE-CAPTURE MONGOLIA?, iff China "pivots" to Mainland Asia = Central Asia in response to an effective USDOD-Marine defense of the disputed Senkakus/Diaoyus, or just to avoid direct military conflict agz the USA in East China Sea???

Read, CHINA-VS-RUSSIA.

Speaking of Mama Russia ...

* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [RFA.org] WILL CHINA USE RUSSIA-STYLE TACTICS [Ukraine-Crimea] TO SETTLE TERRITORIAL DISPUTES IN ASIA?

RELATED DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > POSTER THREAD: WHAT IFF CHINA DOES A "CRIMEA" AGZ INDIA?

* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [Asia News Network] TAIPEI: TAIWAN CAN'T COUNT ON US NAVY [IMO read, POTUS Obama = Anti-US OWG Globalists] IFF TENSIONS RISE [vee China + PLA] IN STRAITS.

ARTIC = TAIWAN must prepare for any possible
"timid" US = POTUS Obama military or counter-response to agression on Taiwan by mainland China, IT IS NOT NECESSARY FOR MAINLAND CHINA TO DIRECTLY CONFRONT, DEFEAT OR DESTROY, AN INTREVENING US MILITARY FORCE, BUT ONLY TO DEFEAT OR DESTROY ITS CAUSE, PURPOSE, OR MISSION IN SUPPORT OF TAIWAN OR OTHER EAST ASIA US ALLIES.

Only two ways I can see - either China diplomatically turns US-Allies in East Asia agz the US, or into Neutrals; or China attacks preemptively + takes over strategic areas = theaters before the US can respond.

* SAME > AL-JAZEERA: THE [final = de facto] END OF CHINA'S SOFT POWER!?

* CHINA DAILY > CHINA'S MARITIME SPACE BEING CARVED UP?

* SAME > POSTER THREAD: CHINA MUST DECLARE IT IS WILLING TO DECLARE/FIGHT NUCLEAR WAR OVER SOUTH CHINA SEA + SENKAKUS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2014-04-21 02:19  

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