The US and Japanese militaries have drawn up joint plans to respond to a potential emergency in Taiwan, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday.
Citing unnamed Japanese government sources, the report said under a draft plan, US Marines would set up a temporary attack base on Japan’s Nansei Islands, also known as the Ryuku Islands, which stretch from southern Japan towards Taiwan.
The sources said if a “Taiwan contingency appears imminent,” the US Marines would receive support from Japanese forces. Since the plan puts the residents of the Nansei Islands at risk, legal changes would need to be made to finalize the plans.
The report comes amid heightened tensions between the US and China surrounding Taiwan. Signaling a shift in policy that has drawn the ire of Beijing, the US and Japan have been openly discussing Taiwan.
In April, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and President Biden released a joint statement that called for “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” It was the first time since 1969 that the leaders of the US and Japan mentioned Taiwan in a joint statement.
Of course, when a US president talks peace in a joint statement, a marine attack base on a far corner of the world must be involved.
A seriously stupid plan. If you can’t defend the main island, what good will occupying a handful of smaller islands do you? We already have 32 bases on Okinawa – which the Chinese would bomb the crap out of in the event the US made military moves against China over Taiwan. The Okinawa bases would probably cease to exist.
As for Japan, they better hope they don’t support the US and that the Chinese don’t adhere to the Russian method of war, because then Japan’s military bases as well as US bases in Japan will cease to exist.
These idiots need to review the existing war games that show the US losing a fight with China over Taiwan.
“Japan’s Nansei Islands” likely just means Okinawa, reasonably close to Taiwan, and by far the largest, already housing the Marines. It likely just means developing the existing Marine bases for operations nearby. This is most likely far less than it seems, except to infuriate the people on Okinawa.
I’m sure the citizens of Hong Kong can empathize with keeping Taiwan from Mainland China.