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The armies of Japan and the United States would be creating a plan that would allow to launch a joint operation in the event of a Chinese attack, according to the Kyodo news agency, which cites anonymous sources from the Japanese government.
The diplomacy of ping pong. The Japanese news agency Kyodo reported Thursday that the Japanese and US armed forces are preparing a draft plan for a joint mission in the event of an “emergency” in Taiwan.
The information comes amid growing tensions between the island and China, the latter affirming that Taiwan is its territory and in the last two years it has intensified military and diplomatic pressure to claim its sovereignty.
The Japanese agency cited anonymous government sources to report that the United States Marine Corps will establish temporary bases in the Nansei island chain, ranging from Kyushu (one of Japan’s four main islands) to Taiwan, in the initial phase of a possible attack in Taiwan.
Under this plan, the Japanese armed forces will provide logistical support – such as the supply of ammunition and fuel – one of the sources said.
The official plan would be presented and defined at a meeting of the foreign and defense ministers early next year, the news agency said. The Japanese Defense Ministry did not comment on the matter.
Last October, the Japanese government had already taken a firmer stance on China’s aggression with Taiwan, suggesting that it would consider options and prepare for “various scenarios.”
Also, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assured that Japan and the United States could not stand still if China attacked Taiwan. Some US officials who spoke anonymously with Reuters said that given the number of troops the United States has in Japan and its proximity to Taiwan, it would make Japan play a critical role in the face of an emergency.
Japan already hosts major US military bases on its territory.
The root of the conflict
The island has an area of 35,000 square kilometers, which represents a third of Cuba. It is located less than 200 kilometers from China, with whom it maintains tense relations.
The conflict between the island and China dates back 70 years. In 1945, China regained control of the island from the Japanese. But in China there had been an internal conflict since 1927 between the nationalist republicans led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the communist party led by Mao Zegond.
The conflict lasted years but was finally defined on October 1, 1949, when the birth of the People’s Republic of China from Mao was declared.
More than a million nationalists, including the military, civilians, intellectuals and businessmen, settled on the recently recovered island and formed a nationalist government. They declared Taipei as the temporary capital of the country and proclaimed themselves as a nation.
After the end of the Second World War, the island maintained its position in the United Nations, UN, and the recognition of many western countries.
But in 1971, US President Richard Nixon proposed a rapprochement with China because they had the former Soviet Union as a common enemy.
The diplomatic thaw began with a sports exchange between the tennis teams of the United States and China, the latter invited the American team to China and opened the possibilities of a rapprochement that led Nixon to China in 1972. Since then it has been dubbed diplomacy. ping pong.
In 1971, the UN recognized the Chinese communist government as the only legitimate representative and years later the United States did, although Washington continued to be the island’s largest supplier of arms and ally.
An unworkable war
For many analysts, Beijing would not be interested in starting a war with the island and risking its decades of peace and economic growth. Likewise, because Taiwan is one of its main partners and attacking them would affect its own economy.
According to Bloomberg, China’s military advantage increases its chances of winning, but the death of thousands of people, the global economic blow and opening a space for eventual military intervention by the United States and its allies.
2021 was the year that China and the United States went beyond economic and geopolitical struggles to enter the ideological confrontation. An example of this was the US diplomatic boycott of the next Winter Olympics in Beijing, or the “Summit for Democracy.” In them, Taiwan has been a guest star.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has said that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a “potentially disastrous decision”, while former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called it “economic suicide.”
With Reuters
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