Amid fear of a future clash with China about Taiwan, the US and Japan reportedly carried out war simulations and combined military operations yesterday night. In the region, China has been more assertive, flying in the air defense area of Taiwan and deploying ships or aircraft to the Senkaku Islands, the Japanese-administrated islands located 215 miles east of Taiwan and claimed by Beijing.

Six sources who requested anonymity told The Financial Times that the US and Japanese military officials began seriously preparing for a possible confrontation in the final year of the Trump administration. Top secret war drills and exercises are held in the seas of South China and East China.

US and Japan are alarmed with China's recent actions

As a result of the Chinese threat to Taiwan and East China's Senkaku Islands in 2019, Shinzo Abe, then Japan's prime minister, decided to significantly raise its military program. This effort has continued in the administration, according to three knowledgeable personnel of Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

As China sent more bombers and fighter jets into Taiwan's air defense zone, including 28 fighters on June 15, the United States and Japan have become perturbed. Besides, the Chinese air force, navy, and coast guard have increasingly become active around the Senaku, a place administered by Japan but Taiwan and China have been claiming. China said it aims for the peaceful unification of Taiwan and the mainland. However, the country has not ruled using force to halt control of Taiwan.

The US has long wished for Japan, a mutual defense treaty ally, to engage in more cooperative military planning; but Japan's postwar pacifist constitution has limited this. When the Abe government revised the constitution in 2015, it allowed Japan to protect allies who were attacked, but it did not remove the impediment.

According to a top Japanese defense official, Russia and China are coordinating military drills to threaten not just Taiwan but also Hawaii and that the US should be wary of a Pearl Harbor-style surprise attack. Taiwan's vulnerability to a mainland Chinese invasion has sparked Indo-Pacific strategists' interest in recent months, as Chinese Communist troops have increased military maneuvers surrounding the island, The Washington Examiner reported.

Yasuhide Nakayama, a Japanese deputy, was unusually forthright about the necessity for democratic nations to secure Taiwan's survival, implying that Russia and China are preparing for a great battle as allies. Chinese Communist authorities see Taiwan as a renegade province that they have claimed but never managed since taking power in 1949.

Although the United States has maintained a good relationship with Taiwan and given weaponry to aid Taiwanese authorities to repel an attack from the mainland, most nations regard the dictatorship in Beijing as the legitimate Chinese government and have no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. China's Foreign Ministry objected to his use of the term "country" to describe Taiwan, claiming that Tokyo is attempting to depict China as a danger to justify its military buildup.

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China chastised Japan on its warning

After China's deputy defense minister stated Japan and the US needed to "wake up" to the security danger presented by China and defend Taiwan as a democratic country, Beijing made a diplomatic complaint with Tokyo. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the official's statements as "erroneous" during a press briefing on Tuesday.

Taiwan is part of China's "sacred land," according to Wang. "We solemnly urge Japan to keep its promise on the Taiwan question and speak and act cautiously," he added, as per Newsweek via MSN.

On June 10, the spokesman issued a similar warning when Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga used the term "country" to refer to Taiwan during a National Diet session broadcast on national television. The Chinese government continues to assert sovereignty over Taiwan, which became a fully democratic country in the mid-1990s.

Nakayama warned that a Chinese takeover of Taiwan would pose a direct threat to adjacent islands in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, citing the presence of American military personnel and family members. According to the defense official, China's People's Liberation Army is conducting military drills not only in the Taiwan Strait but also in the Western Pacific in an attempt to "surround all the Taiwan islands."

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