In joint military operations, tens of thousands of troops from the United States and Japan will begin a massive island-landing exercise in the Pacific this week, part of what seems to be a warning to China that the U.S. government backs Tokyo over Beijing’s claim to Japanese-controlled islands.
On Monday, speaking aboard a Japanese warship, commander of U.S. Forces Japan Lt. General Kevin Schneider said that the exercises will demonstrate the ability of the U.S.-Japan alliance “to deliver combat troops to defend the Senkakus or respond to other crises or contingencies.”
Japan has controlled the Senkaku Islands since 1972, though Beijing has tried to claim the islands, which they refer to as the Diaoyus, as their own. Tensions between the two nations over the uninhabited rocky chain of islands 1,200 miles southwest of Tokyo have simmered for years. Claims over them date back centuries, and both sides show no indication of backing down.
According to CNN, “Chinese vessels have been spending record amounts of time in the waters around the islands this year, drawing condemnation from Tokyo.”
Military Exercises
The US-Japan exercises, referred to as Keen Sword 21, have been held every two years for more than 30 years. This year, the exercises run through to November 5.
The US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii said in a statement that the US and Japanese forces “will train in a comprehensive scenario designed to exercise the critical capabilities required to support the defense of Japan and respond to a crisis or contingency in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The troops “will exercise a wide range of warfighting capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility and capability of the US and Japanese militaries,” the Pacific Fleet statement added.
Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said that the exercises have strong “deterrent value” toward China.
“They show (island) seizure is not going to be cheap or unchallenged,” he said.
The idea of any military face-off between Japan and China over disputed islands is even more serious due to the mutual defense treaty between the United States and Japan, which obligates the U.S. to defend the islands as if they were American territory.
As evidenced by Schneider’s comments on Monday, the U.S. has been steadfast in that commitment.
In July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo included the Senkakus dispute as one of the areas in the Indo-Pacific where he said China was “instigating territorial disputes” as part of a pattern of “bullying” its Asian neighbors.
The fleets taking part in the joint operations include approximately 9,000 US troops, a US aircraft carrier strike group, more than 100 US military aircraft, more than 37,000 Japanese troops, a flotilla of 20 Japan Maritime Self Defense Force warships, 100 Japanese military planes, and a frigate from Canada. The focus of these operations is landing large forces on islands around Okinawa, 250 miles to the east of the Senkakus.
Yoshihide Suga has been promoting Japan’s support for a “free and open Indo-Pacific” since becoming the Prime Minister of Japan in September. According to CNN, “He’s overseen Japanese naval deployments to the South China Sea — which Beijing claims almost in its entirety — visiting both Vietnam and Indonesia to strengthen Japanese ties with those countries that also have claims in the vast waterway.”
Prime Minister Suga has also reaffirmed defense ties with India and Australia. These two nations, along with the US and Japan, are known as “the Quad.”
Though it is not a formal military alliance like NATO, the Quad is seen as a potential counterweight to growing Chinese influence and aggression in the Asia-Pacific. Beijing has denounced the Quad as an “anti-China bloc.”
Naval forces from each of the four Quad nations will be participating in another joint operation next month: large-scale Malabar military exercises in the Indian Ocean.
China’s Military “Show of Strength”
While joint operation Keen Sword 21 is being carried out by the United States and Japan, China’s People’s Liberation Army is in the middle of two sets of military exercises: one in the Bohai Sea, and another in the Yellow Sea, according to the PLA’s official English-language website. The PLA did not disclose the nature of the exercises.
According to reporting by CNN, “Those exercises, scheduled to end on November 10 and October 30, respectively, are just the latest in a busy few months for China’s military, which has recently had as many as five exercises running simultaneously.”
