Sunday, April 27, 2014

Obama backs Japan as they increase military footing in China seas dispute

DAWN.com
Japanese lawmakers visit war shrine on eve of Obama trip

 

 

 Obama to back Japan in China islands dispute

China Rejects Obama's Stance on Japan Island Dispute

Japan expands army footprint for first time in 40 years furthering risks of military confrontation

Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF)'s Type 89 Assault Rifle is seen as JGSDF 1st Airborne Brigade soldiers wear parachutes for a parachute drop training during their military drill at Higashifuji training field in Susono, west of Tokyo, July 8, 2013. REUTERS/Issei Kato

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, further rattled Tokyo.

The U.S. Takes Sides in a Dispute Between China and Japan as world war again begins to shroud the world

  The U.S. Takes Sides in a Dispute Between China and Japan:  For the first time, China will host the Western Pacific Naval Symposium, a meeting every two years of countries that border the Pacific Ocean. The W.P.N.S., as it is known in naval circles, counts among its members the United States, Australia, Chile, Canada and a number of Asian countries, including China and Japan.
 It can be an eye-popping display of war ships, destroyers and guided-missile cruisers. In 2008, when South Korea hosted the symposium, the United States sent the aircraft carrier George Washington, the guided missile cruiser Cowpens and the destroyer John S. McCain to take part. For this year’s fleet review, China, which is hosting the event in Qingdao, invited all the countries in the symposium to take part — except Japan.

Two Aegis ships bound for Japan

China ratchets up control over South China sea coming closer to confrontation



                                                
               

China demands removal of Japan’s forces from Spratley Island Group
Philippines drops food to troops after China "blockade":  "We confirmed there was an air drop of food to our troops," Defence Department spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said. He said the air drop was "via airplane," but did not say when it occurred nor give further details. The incident took place at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly island group, which is around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan and which Manila insists is part of its continental shelf.

The shoal is more than 1,000 kilometres from Hainan island, the closest Chinese landmass, but China claims nearly all of the South China Sea based on what it says are historical records. A tiny unit of Filipino marines live on the BRP Sierra Madre, a decrepit, beached former World-War-II US navy transport ship that was transferred to the Philippine navy and run aground on the shoal in the 1990s.
China has long demanded the Philippines pull out the vessel and the marines.

 
"It will allow early warning of missiles and supplement the monitoring of Chinese military movements." Japan does not specify an exact enemy when discussing its defense strategy but it makes no secret it perceives China generally as a threat as it becomes an Asian power that could one day rival Japan's ally in the region, the United States.
Japan, in its National Defense Programme Guidelines issued in December, expressed "great concern" over China's military buildup and "attempts to change the status quo by coercion" in the sea and air.
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, further rattled Tokyo.
Japanese and Chinese navy and coastguard ships have played cat-and-mouse around the uninhabited islands since Japan nationalised the territory in 2012.
- See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/japan-expands-army-footprint-for-first-time-in-40-years-risks-angering-china/article1-1209984.aspx#sthash.ezJWiAvz.dpuf
"It will allow early warning of missiles and supplement the monitoring of Chinese military movements." Japan does not specify an exact enemy when discussing its defense strategy but it makes no secret it perceives China generally as a threat as it becomes an Asian power that could one day rival Japan's ally in the region, the United States.
Japan, in its National Defense Programme Guidelines issued in December, expressed "great concern" over China's military buildup and "attempts to change the status quo by coercion" in the sea and air.
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, further rattled Tokyo.
Japanese and Chinese navy and coastguard ships have played cat-and-mouse around the uninhabited islands since Japan nationalised the territory in 2012.
- See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/japan-expands-army-footprint-for-first-time-in-40-years-risks-angering-china/article1-1209984.aspx#sthash.ezJWiAvz.dpuf

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