The new Japanese Self Defence Force (JSDF) base on the island of Yonaguni is at the western extreme of a string of Japanese islands in the East China Sea, 150 km south of the disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
The new base can be used as a permanent intelligence gathering post as well an outlet for military operations in the region, adding to Tokyo's existing military buildup along the Yaeyama Island chain, which includes Yonaguni, said Reuters.
The move comes as Taiwan has announced the arrest of 41 Chinese fishermen found with 15 tons of illicit coral and endangered turtles in their possession near a disputed atoll in the South China Sea.
Taiwanese authorities detained the fishermen on March 22 after their 300-ton vessel was discovered operating illegally off Tongsha Island, the coast guard said, in the island’s largest mission targeting rampant poaching in the contested waters.
Officials later recovered the harvested reef from the ship along with three endangered turtles and about 40 kg (88 pounds) of chemicals used to kill fish.
China has laid claim to most of the South China Sea, which is strongly contested by other coastal countries in the region like Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Japan and China have been mired for many years in a territorial dispute over the East China Sea islands.
“Until yesterday, there was no coastal observation unit west of the main Okinawa island. It was a vacuum we needed to fill,” Daigo Shiomitsu, a lieutenant colonel who commands the new base on Yonaguni, is quoted as saying by Reuters. “It means we can keep watch on territory surrounding Japan and respond to all situations.”
Shiomitsu on Monday attended a ceremony at the base with 160 military personnel and about 50 dignitaries. Construction of some buildings, which feature white walls and traditional Okinawan red-tiled roofs, is still unfinished.
The 30-square-kilometre island is home to 1500 people, who mostly raise cattle and grow sugar cane.
Yonaguni is only about 100 kilometres east of Taiwan, near the edge of a controversial air defence identification zone set up by China in 2013.
China has yet to make a statement regarding the move, but strategists say it won't deter the mainland from more aggressive expansion in the zone.
"This is the latest step in Japan's response to China's forceful symbolism in the East China Sea," noted Steve Wilford, Asia Pacific director for global risk analysis at Control Risks Group.
Over the next five years, Japan is to increase its Self Defence Force in the East China Sea by about a fifth to almost 10,000 personnel, including missile batteries that will help Japan draw a defensive curtain along the island chain.
Chinese ships sailing from their eastern seaboard must pass through this barrier to reach the Western Pacific, access to which Beijing needs both as a supply line to the rest of the world's oceans and for naval power projection. [singaporenews]
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