U.S. says it will help Japan monitor Chinese incursion around disputed islands

My repeating comments here - We were very much disappointed, when Obama was the president, U.S. Forces on Okinawa did nothing to help Japan while we were bullied and humiliated by China. I am glad it finally reached to their ears. I wish Republican government continues another four years and deter expansionism of China in the theater.

The US is offering a bone to Japan for recent infection problems in Okinawa. I wonder what China will do since they can no longer show their power to distract their populace from the recent spikes in China.

China is losing the backing of the people because of COVID-19. I also predict that the Hong Kong government will try to use the outbreak to stay in power and postpone elections because Lam will definitely be voted out of office.

need excuse for war... do not support this stupid game.

@vanityofvanities

You are confusing the weakness of the Obama administration with the party. The Republicans will be out soon but the US position towards China today is bipartisan. It will continue under the new Democratic President, and probably for many administrations thereafter in this new Cold War, because I see no possibility of China changing it's approach to the rest of the world under Xi Jing Ping.

This "case" it's actually not that difficult to resolve:

1) The US of A stays out of this.

2) Japan reams. Fully.

3) Japan builds/adapts 6 Soryu subs with nuclear tipped ballistic missiles. (Izumo anyone?)

4) Japan's 6 subs block the Miyako Straits and point their "wares" towards Beijing.

5) Case closed.

The Senkaku issue must be solved through dialogue and diplomacy, never by an armed confrontation.

Combat fatigues?

Really?

@vanityofvanities

My repeating comments here - We were very much disappointed, when Obama was the president, U.S. Forces on Okinawa did nothing to help Japan while we were bullied and humiliated by China. I am glad it finally reached to their ears. I wish Republican government continues another four years and deter expansionism of China in the theater.

Basically, you wanted America to protect you from the country that you attacked and occupied like a child. Then you got upset because Pres. Obama, a far superior leader to anyone in Japan, wanted Japan to work it out with China like adults.

Too much muzukashii for you?

LOL!

voiceofokinawaToday  07:36 am JST

The Senkaku issue must be solved through dialogue and diplomacy, never by an armed confrontation.

Please go tell the country that keeps sending their ships there to enforce their claim.

Meantime, I'm waiting for the K-crowd to complain that the USFJ emblem has what could be construed as as the "rising sun flag"..lol

voiceofokinawa:

The Senkaku issue must be solved through dialogue and diplomacy, never by an armed confrontation.

When they have no intention to talk and invade Japanese land or sea, they will be met with a fierce military resistance and will regret deeply.

China has been caught illegally fishing in North Korean waters. There are satellite photos with over 800 fishing boats as proof. https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/china-at-sea

What's next if this is allowed to continue unchallenged?

Living somewhere does NOT, repeat does NOT make you the “Voice” of it, lol

But what can the US even do? Sink those fishing ships? I doubt Chinese ships would just leave just because US navy had arrived. You can't shoo them away. And even if they leave, they will just return after US navy leave.

Living somewhere does NOT, repeat does NOT make you the “Voice” of it, lol

I agree. USA doesn’t live there but it sure is the voice.

How will Biden think about recent US action?

If China is willing to escalate to the point of war. Ok let's stop them then.

For pacifist Japan under Article 9 Forced by the U.S to sign after WW2 it's not easy to get on board with Trumps aggressive agenda.

Japan is also very close to China and North Korea, while America is over 4500 miles away at a safe distance. Very few weapons can reach and touch America while Japan can be hit by thousands and thousands of cruise missile, gliding bombs, ballistic missiles, within range of fighters and bombers, submarines.

China has been threatening its neighbors even more aggressively in the recent months, so a response is required.

Their fishing boats are even getting close the Ecuador with active backing from the military.

Xi thinks such conflicts will strengthen his position, it's time to give him a bloody nose!!

Japan needs to build a harbor and airfield on the islands... for fishing safety, rescue etc of course.

Then militarize them just as China has done elsewhere. China surely can’t complain about that, seeing as they set the example.

I see quite a few comments by some naïve people here...

First of all, in almost any situation, bullies like China won't leave Japan or other nations alone if it shows weakness.

It's all well and good that the US says it'll defend Japan, but words mean nothing if they don't actually use force to back them up.

We're in this mess because the US has a president who can't commit to anything nor anyone.

Which means its allies have to act as if the US won't help them.

Japan should rearm and stand its ground. It's capable of doing so despite what some so-called "experts" keep saying.

MoskolloToday  09:53 am JST

Let’s get off the pot, the United Nations needs to put sanctions on China 

As a member of the Permanent Security Council, China will veto any resolution that is designed to punish it or stop it's aggressive behavior.

Ichiro_WeatherForecasterToday  08:57 am JST

How will Biden think about recent US action?

When Biden was Vice-President, 2 Secretaries of State, 2 Secretaries of Defense, and President Obama himself declared that any attempt to take the Senkakus by force would invoke article 5 of the US-JPN Mutual Defense Treaty. And with the bipartisan move towards resisting China's aggressive behavior, I would say the answer is obvious.

"The Senkaku issue must be solved through dialogue and diplomacy, never by an armed confrontation."

Yeah right like that means anything to China and its "scientific research" man- made islands, now fully militarized bases, HK signed agreement with the UK "broken" agreement with India on a border (broken" all dialogue and diplomacy. Does not work when an aggressive government won't listen case in point NK. The Senkaku's can only be resolved if its owner/administrator steps up and actually builds on it, even if it means putting its national flag on it and setup a detachment post as defensive security/deterrent aggression and in the name of peace keeping scientific research...

"The U.S. military will help Japan monitor "unprecedented" Chinese incursions around East China Sea islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing as Chinese boats prepare to begin fishing in nearby waters, the commander of U.S. Forces Japan said on Wednesday."

Just sink them. That's it. Case closed. Make up for the Chinese government shooting down a U2 spy plan, cut it in half and gut what they could with the US sell out administration of Clinton did nothing. Call it tit for tat they Chinese do. That incident may be in the back of the mind but it is not forgotten.

This "case" it's actually not that difficult to resolve:

1) The US of A stays out of this.

2) Japan reams. Fully.

3) Japan builds/adapts 6 Soryu subs with nuclear tipped ballistic missiles. (Izumo anyone?)

4) Japan's 6 subs block the Miyako Straits and point their "wares" towards Beijing.

5) Case closed.

I agree, If Japan could do all of that, I would so support it, but sadly, that just won’t be happening anytime soon.

@Peeping_Tom

This "case" it's actually not that difficult to resolve

Oh, those armchair warriors... I wonder why SDF's Joint Chiefs of Staff and Prime Minister's Secretariat did not ask you yet to be their special advisor?

Japan builds/adapts 6 Soryu subs with nuclear tipped ballistic missiles. (Izumo anyone?)

Do you know how a nuclear ballistic missile looks like? Do you imagine the time / effort / expenditure needed to produce a deployable ballistic missile system?

Japan's 6 subs block the Miyako Straits and point their "wares" towards Beijing

And what next? China will point their missiles towards Tokyo, they already have hundreds of missiles.

First of all, Japan needs more Coast Guard ships in the area. And it also needs bases more close to Senkaku. China's bases are closer, and Japan can lose the confrontation econimically - its ships and planes make longer sorties to the islands.

Prior to attempt any maritime "adventures" China MUST resolve this first:

"HOW NOISY CHINESE SUBMARINE WAS EASILY EXPOSED BY JAPAN ?"

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mzmxl-gPK0"

And that was Japan's navy all alone.

Do they really want the US navy to butt in too?

China is asking for a big slap; they're inching closer to getting it.

There is nothing the US can do to stop the Chinese patrol.

After all, the Chinese long term plan is to wear down Japan's fighter fleet by forcing them to scramble every day, until there are no Japanese fighters left to scramble.

China The Monster, needs to be stopped on so many levels, the world has LET China build all those manmade islands that were not going to be militarised, low & behold, they are covered in weapons!!

On the economic front China has become a huge disaster, the West got SUCKED IN bigtime, so much so China now BANKS the West has too much invested to call China on its international terrorism!!

As I have been harping now for decades, the longer the West waits the HIGHER the price will be!

It is getting so bad in so many places around the world I think for starters that China needs to be KICKED OUT of the UN. That or start a whole NEW body with West & aligned nations & start from there.

Western govts need to tell BUSINESS if they dont start leaving China the goods & services from there will have duty\taxes applied.

It is going to get REAL UGLY no matter what happens here onwards, it is going to be difficult to avoid gun shots me thinks!! But the more we wait the worse it WILL BE!!!

Please keep the US out of the area. The US creates more problems than it solves and is particularly dangerous under the present president. It is even more dangerous at this particular time as there is an election coming up and Trump could try to start an international incident to draw attention away from the current state of the US.

Japan is also very close to China and North Korea, while America is over 4500 miles away at a safe distance

America only creates wars outside its territory. They may have never won a war, but they have never suffered tragedy from war except the twin tower.

all damage overseas happens in foreign countries. Japan and Taiwan will be the battleground.

It is about the time Japan should be armed to the teeth to defend her from the possible aggression instigated by Communist Party of China.

"First of all, Japan needs more Coast Guard ships in the area. And it also needs bases more close to Senkaku. China's bases are closer, and Japan can lose the confrontation econimically - its ships and planes make longer sorties to the islands."

Read just a bit; Japan has bases closer to the Senkakus.

"Do you know how a nuclear ballistic missile looks like? Do you imagine the time / effort / expenditure needed to produce a deployable ballistic missile system?"

Again; reading won't kill you.

Read on Japan's rocketry capability; read on Japan's shipbuilding capacity; read on their stockpile and amount of Plutonium; read on what what physicists say about the time it would take them to assemble a nuclear device,

Read.

Japan is not Nauru, in cases you are wondering.

Everybody here seems to forget or have never bothered to learn that there was no problem concerning the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands for 30 years until Japan decided to go back on its promise (at the urging of the American Heritage Institute) to shelve the question of ownership that was made between Prime Minister Tanaka and the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai at their summit in 1972.

OssanAmerica & Socrateos,

They may resort to force if they really believed that the Senkakus/Diaoyudaos had been an integral part of China. But if that belief of theirs turned out to be wrong and in shatters, would they really do?

In my opinion, there’s still a lot of room to discuss the problem.

Combat fatigues? 

Really?

Nobody calls them “fatigues” since the 90’s woodland pattern. They are called ACU (Army combat uniform) or BDU (battle dress uniform) or just “cammies” for short.

And yes it is the day to day wear of military personnel when performing regular duty. If he wore his Alpha dress blues you’d probably complain that he looks like a fascist.

"America only creates wars outside its territory."

The US learned a hard lesson on 7 December 1941 and again on 11 September 2001. Better to fight your enemies on their soil that your own. Forward deploy, train hard, train realistically and be prepared to confront enemies as far away from home as possible.

"The Senkaku issue must be solved through dialogue and diplomacy, never by an armed confrontation."

How did that strategy work out for Hong Kong ?

@Peeping_Tom

Read on Japan's rocketry capability; read on Japan's shipbuilding capacity

Oh, I read a lot. And I also have an advice for you: think. I know that Japan has great missile / shipbuilding capability. The problem is that China is catching up quickly, and where they inferior in quality they can make up in quantity. So here is the big question for a good thinking: how Japan should defend its interests without starting a shooting war and without ruining its economy by an arms race.

Japan is not Nauru, in cases you are wondering

In case you are wandering, neither is China.

"There is nothing the US can do to stop the Chinese patrol."

Do you think US Army forces in Germany would have waited for the Bundeswere to respond if Soviet tanks were rolling through the Fulda Gap? Hardly. It would have been pedal to the metal for the !st Armored Division. By virtue of the US defense commitments to Japan US forces can very much challenge Chinese incursions into Japan's territorial waters. US aircraft can relieve the Japanese of some of their scrambles when Chinese aircraft try to intrude into Japanese airspace.

Trump is doing a great job and the US generals realize that China needs to be confronted. This move together with reducing the trade imbalance between the US and China from -$420 billion in 2018 to close to an estimated -$250 billion in 2020 should help to persuade the Chinese that their course of actions will not be tolerated.

tooheysnew,

How did that strategy work out for Hong Kong ?

The Hong Kong issue is different from the Senkaku issue by nature. The former is a spat between Hongkongers, who are Chinese by ethnicity and culture, over the Hongkongers' political and judicial rights, while the latter is a controversy between two nations over an area's sovereignty.

Nobody calls them “fatigues” since the 90’s woodland pattern. They are called ACU (Army combat uniform) or BDU (battle dress uniform) or just “cammies” for short.

Fascinating

If he wore his Alpha dress blues

the optics might look more mature. Perhaps they're for the US electorate, not China

you’d probably complain that he looks like a fascist

That's quite the attempted putdown. It ain't a binary world, BeerDeliveryGuy.

Got any Guinness?

Been saying for years Japan needs to build some sort of installation on the senkakus and heavily fortify it, provide a heliport and call it a first aid post for emergency use, any apporach from the enemy and their boats are sunk no questions asked.

China is using its growing strength to push its claims everywhere. Growing military ship building with huge fishing fleets all coordinated to push others out of areas they want. This has been largely successful in the South China Sea. They send massive fleets to Ecuador eez to steal fish from South American waters.

They increase incursion in Japanese air defense zones daily and are about to allow massive fishing fleets to enter Japans territory around the Senkaku's to provoke Japan and attempt to push out the Japanese coast guard vessels by sheer numbers. Such behavior is aggressive and disruptive and goes against their requests that nobody should unilaterally alter the status quo. Of course they dont include themselves in that demand.

Japan needs to have a reinforced vessel in their fleet designed to be able to collide (ram) illegal fishing vessels and fishing militia vessels, without taking damage themselves. Once a few ships are sunk due to China's fishing fleets "unsafe" behavior around Japanese ships and Japan saving the crews, perhaps then China will pull back.

Words and soft power will not work against China. Nothing will discourage China except perhaps the prospect of a war against a dozen countries or more at the same time. Other nations need to show China they mean business and will not be pushed out of their legal entitlements.

Do they really want the US navy to butt in too?

China is asking for a big slap; they're inching closer to getting it.

Sometimes it comes to that and if so, do it.

"The Hong Kong issue is different from the Senkaku issue by nature. The former is a spat between Hongkongers, who are Chinese by ethnicity and culture, over the Hongkongers' political and judicial rights, while the latter is a controversy between two nations over an area's sovereignty."

Don't know where your getting or reading about this, but that is the whole key as China is claiming sovereign rights as much as it can out there and get away with.

"How did that strategy work out for Hong Kong ?"

The same as it did for Tibet. Ask them how they feel and if Taiwan doesn't fight back it will end up like HK.

"Do you think US Army forces in Germany would have waited for the Bundeswere to respond if Soviet tanks were rolling through the Fulda Gap?"

Absolutely without a doubt had the leadership admin at the time where to busy playing favoritism politics over listening to their Generals and boots on the ground, aka General Patton to name one of the many..

"In my opinion, there’s still a lot of room to discuss the problem."

Not surprising, but in reality world that time has come and gone. They prove it everyday your just not ignoring or not paying attention. Refer to NK. dialogue and diplomacy just dont' work in all cases, something the Romans learned but forgot due to greed and too much government.

US / Japan need to send some subs to the area and cause some "happy little accidents".

China is acting aggressively toward the international waters and the situation has gotten out of control.Hopefully the US will implement some drastic sanctions in order to stop them. If this doesn’t work then all bets are off.

The U.S. military will help Japan monitor "unprecedented" Chinese incursions around East China Sea islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing as Chinese boats prepare to begin fishing in nearby waters, the commander of U.S. Forces Japan said on Wednesday.

Bravo! Meanwhile what will the uninvited guests and virtual da-kine colonizer do bout the news below?

Japan and China agreed Wednesday to work toward resuming mutual travel that has stalled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

China has been getting way too cocky of late. It is time the rest of the world stood up to them, they may have become wealthier in recent years but they are still a backward thinking people with very low standards/morals. They have ruined the planet with this current Covid virus and not so much as an apology to the rest of the world.

"now if you fail college you’ll end up like that guy"

Pretty much the weekly lecture from about the 6th grade onward. Turned out you really need a masters degree today to have a well paying career. BAs today are like a high school diploma fifty years ago. The bare minimum to have a job that puts a roof over your head but not much more. But you tell me, why would anyone aspire to work on an assembly line the rest of their working life? I drove trucks and worked in warehouses to pay for that masters degree and buddy you can have it. Horrible jobs, 12 - 14 hour back breaking work days with no paid holidays or paid time off. It's a dead end. My parents were right. Stay in school and get a degree. If all you want to do is slide through high school with Cs don't complain later on about having no opportunities and having to struggle to survive.

China. Japan. America. When it comes to Diaoyu they are ALL wrong and I wish they would all stand down and shut up about those worthless rocks.

Best thing to do is blow them up at this point. It would be cheaper than building useless facilities there for show.

Don't give an inch to the communist bullies in China.

Vanessa; it's what's in the Ocean UNDER the rocks, not the Rocks:

When it comes to Diaoyu they are ALL wrong and I wish they would all stand down and shut up about those worthless rocks.

The US bases on Okinawa are going to come in handy, eh. Wonder if the local will complain about any increase in optempo driven by sorties added to respond to Chinese incursions?

Samit Basu July 30 11:00 am JS

After all, the Chinese long term plan is to wear down Japan's fighter fleet by forcing them to scramble every day, until there are no Japanese fighters left to scramble.

Because he thinks that Japan is going to convert its two Izumo class helicopter destroyers into light aircraft carriers. So that an airfield can be deployed around the Senkaku Islands if necessary. 

Having an F-35 fighter launch pad, directly from the Senkakus. They will allow Japan greater flexibility in resources and less wear and tear on logistics equipment. And faster intervention in intercepting Chinese fighters, which fly illegally over Japanese airspace. Not to mention that they will have greater air patrol coverage, to monitor Japanese territorial waters. To which the Senkakus Islands belong according to international treaties in force.

it's what's in the Ocean UNDER the rocks, not the Rocks:

What's under the rocks is no basis for territorial claims either. And no one is going to get what's under those rocks for a very, very long time. By the time the tech allows it to even happen, what's there will probably all be obsolete anyway.

vanityofvanitiesJuly 30  07:05 am JST

"My repeating comments here - We were very much disappointed, when Obama was the president, U.S. Forces on Okinawa did nothing to help Japan while we were bullied and humiliated by China. I am glad it finally reached to their ears. I wish Republican government continues another four years and deter expansionism of China in the theater."

ROFL, so wait, wait wait, just to make sure I'm understanding this right, you are saying it's Obama's fault that Japan was getting bullied by China?

PLEASE stay out ASIANS affairs.

"What's under the rocks is no basis for territorial claims either. And no one is going to get what's under those rocks for a very, very long time. By the time the tech allows it to even happen, what's there will probably all be obsolete anyway."

China wants to exploit the fishing grounds and any oil around those islands as well as to prevent them from being used as a barrier to their fleet in time of war. As long as Japan maintains sovereignty of the islands China is legally precluded from fishing or exploring for oil within the 200 nm EEZ that surrounds those islands. China wants resources and unrestricted access to ocean past the first island chain and Japan's possession of the Senakaku's gets in the way of this.

rgcivilian1,

North Korea's behavioral norms are that if they didn't possess nuclear arsenal they would be a sitting duck and would be easily attacked by the U.S. In order to convince them that that will never happen, the U.S. must substantiate its word by action. Deeds, not words.

For starters, the U.S. must denuclearize itself, disposing of all its nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. 

Otherwise, your argument will boil down to which came first, the chicken or the egg.

North Korea thinks there's no room for further talks about its denuclearization in spite of Trump's hope and cajolement.

The Senkaku issue is different from North Korea's denuclearization issue.  There's still room for talks here.

"North Korea thinks there's no room for further talks about its denuclearization in spite of Trump's hope and cajolement."

There is more to it I think. North Korea is uncomfortable depending on China and Russia. As far back as Kim Il Sung there have been North Korean overtures to the US. The Kims don't particularly trust the Russians or the Chinese. They seem to have long wanted to find a way to step out from under the thumb of the Chinese however they feel restrained by China, which has made it clear they do not want a unified Korea on their border if such a country wasn't a single party state beholden to China and they have even publicly stated the PLA would intervene in the event the North Korean government collapsed. North Korea have an unresolved border dispute at Paektu Mountain, a 2744 meter tall stratovolcano on the North Korean / Chinese border that is considered sacred to both north and south Koreans. I think there remains some scope for negotiating with North Korea but at this point such negotiations would have be done in secret. In some ways the North Koreans remind me of our autistic little boy, unable to fully articulate what they want and not fully comprehending that some of the things they do or say come off as very hurtful and scary.

FYI.　Today's Okinawa Times reports that Tokyo and Beijing are negotiating to hold a telephone conference over the East China Sea situation at a bureaucratic director level.

voiceofokinawaToday  11:33 am JST

FYI.　Today's Okinawa Times reports that Tokyo and Beijing are negotiating to hold a telephone conference over the East China Sea situation at a bureaucratic director level.

I reckon Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider will be 100 percent absolutely invited to join da-kine teleconference.

Japan and China should give him an invitation this time otherwise he will just gate crash again!

The Senkaku issue must be solved through dialogue and diplomacy, never by an armed confrontation.

@voiceofokinawa

It looks as if you are not confident that Senkaku islands historically belonged to Japan. Even though Vietnam is not wealthy and is not an ally of the US, during the last five decades, it has been ready to defend its islands against China.

How will Biden think about recent US action?

hhmmm? sadly biden isn't big in the "thinking" department, have you heard him recently?

"Make up for the Chinese government shooting down a U2 spy plan, cut it in half and gut what they could with the US sell out administration of Clinton did nothing."

Wow, where to start with this one. The only U-2 ever shot down was in May of 1960 over the former USSR. The pilot was Francis Gary Powers. In April 2001 a PLAAF J-8II fighter collided with a US Navy EP-3E Aires, a four engine ELINT aircraft based on the P-3 Orion anti-submarine patrol plane, that suffered severe damage from the collision including loss of most of its nose. The pilot landed it at a Chinese airbase on Hainan Island to save his crew. April 2001 would have been during the George W. Bush administration. President Clinton was out of office in January 2001.

"hhmmm? sadly biden isn't big in the "thinking" department, have you heard him recently?"

Learn about stuttering. It's a speech impediment that afflicts Mr. Biden. Stutters often avoid words that will cause them to stutter and use other words to get their point across but they appear clumsy in the process. It has nothing to do with their ability to think. It is no reflection on their intelligence. It's a speech impediment the sufferer is born with.

"It looks as if you are not confident that Senkaku islands historically belonged to Japan. Even though Vietnam is not wealthy and is not an ally of the US, during the last five decades, it has been ready to defend its islands against China."

Spain controlled California longer than the US did. Spain "discovered" it too, never mind the native tribes living there thousands of years before the Spanish arrived. Is the US therefore bound to hand California over to Spain? By yours and China's reasoning one would think so. How about Florida? It was under British, French and Spanish rule at different times in its history. Is the US claim to Florida automatically and naturally invalid simply because some other power controlled it in its distant past? The argument is ridiculous on its face. WWII stirred the pot and changed boundaries and the US ended up controlling most of the islands in the Pacific it had to fight the Japanese over. When China went Communist it is natural the US would not hand those islands over to China but instead place then with the Japanese. Too bad if China doesn't like that. Let them pick their fight with the US and leave Japan out of it.

One way or another the world must CONTAIN China or we are in for a very very rough ride.

The U.S. military will help Japan monitor "unprecedented" Chinese incursions around East China Sea islands ...

Does the word "monitor" here mean "To keep track of something systematically with a view to collecting information" as defined in a dictionary? And the USFJ will help Japan do that? Or does it mean more than that?

When China went Communist it is natural the US would not hand those islands over to China but instead place then with the Japanese. Too bad if China doesn't like that. Let them pick their fight with the US and leave Japan out of it.

Given China is a sinner in seizing the lands of others, it cannot have it both ways. In case China returned Tibet and Uyghur kingdoms, Dong-Yue, and Nan-Yue to the previous owners, it were left with a humble land in between the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers.

In the context of the Senkaku crisis, Japan should be glad that it had the crucial support of the US.