The top US general says China has become more aggressive over the last 5 years

The China-US Correlations: A Review of Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan and the Associated Safety Phenomena

This will intensify threat perceptions in Beijing and the other city of North Korea. We will see these dynamics spiral in East Asia. Where we do not have measures of restraint. We have no arms control,” Panda said.

“The volume, the number of Chinese intercepts at sea and in the air have increased significantly over five years,” Milley said, though he offered no further details on the figure.

Pelosi’s visit and the ensuing furor from China highlighted concerns within Biden’s administration over Beijing’s designs on Taiwan. Even before the speaker touched down in Taipei in August, Beijing had stepped up its rhetoric and aggressive actions toward the island, including sending warplanes into Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone several times.

President Joe Biden has suggested the US military believes a potential trip by Pelosi and other lawmakers would pose security risks. The Pentagon won’t say if the California Democrat has been briefed by officials, but they say they are worried about China and an increased number of unsafe intercepts of US vessels and aircraft.

By launching the review, Milley is seeking to gain a detailed understanding of all interactions between the two militaries, especially any that could be deemed “unsafe” or “unprofessional” due to Chinese aircraft or ships operating too close to US military assets.

A Chinese navy vessel used a laser to illuminate an Australian Air Force jet, which the Australian government said was a serious safety incident.

The Australian Defense Force condemned the acts and said they had the potential to endanger lives. Over the years pilots targeted bylaser attacks have reported some strange effects on their vision and even temporarily blindness.

Xi warns China against the invasion of the South China Sea by neighboring countries and threatens to destroy Japan with a military attack

Austin said in a keynote speech that “Indo-Pacific countries should not face political intimidation, economic coercive or harassment by maritime militias.”

The country’s white paper states that the development of the national defense aims to meet its rightful security needs and contribute to the growth of the world’s peaceful forces. “China will never threaten any other country or seek any sphere of influence.”

Earlier this month, a US Navy ship challenged Chinese claims to a number of disputed islands in the South China Sea, the 7th Fleet said in a statement.

While it’s not clear if Biden will make the same statement when he sits down with China’s president on Monday. During his press conference before his trip, Biden was asked if he would reiterate his commitment to defend Taiwan in a military way.

For his part, Xi is fond of using a specific metaphor to warn Biden against overstepping: “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” he told the US president over the telephone in July as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was preparing to visit Taiwan with a congressional delegation.

It was the fourth time he’d made such a remark since taking office. If China takes Taiwan, the US would jump into action, he said during his visit to Tokyo. And he told a CNN town hall in 2021 that the US would protect the island in the event of a Chinese attack.

Given Taiwan’s strategic location on the first island chain – a string of US-friendly territories crucial to US foreign policies – and alongside a key global shipping lane, were the island to fall under Beijing’s control, it could potentially jeopardize Japan’s economic lifeline and give China’s navy unfettered access to the Western Pacific.

Xi has said that “reunification” between China and Taiwan is inevitable and has refused to rule out the use of force. Beijing and Taipei are at war with the Chinese military holding large-scale military drills near the island.

The Defence Strategy of the Republic of Japan: Defense, Security, Counterstrike Capabilities, and the Defense of the Senkaku Islands

Japan unveiled its biggest surge of military strength since World War II on Friday, doubling defense spending and changing its pacifist constitution to deal with growing threats from regional rivals.

The National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Force Development Plan were all approved by the government, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during an address to the nation.

The new measures include provisions that would enable Japan to possess “counterstrike capabilities,” the ability to directly attack another country’s territory in the event of an emergency and under specific circumstances, Kishida said.

The Prime Minister earlier in December instructed his defense and finance ministers to secure funds to increase Japan’s defense budget to 2% of current GDP in 2027, according to Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada.

Long-time rival China has been been growing its naval and air forces in areas near Japan while claiming the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited Japanese-controlled chain in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, as its sovereign territory.

Japan is watching the build-up of North Korea’s missile arsenal. Pyongyang has tested missiles on 34 occasions this year, including firing one over Japan in October for the first time in five years, an act Kishida called “outrageous.”

Russia’s build up on islands north of Japan has caused Tokyo to worry that it may need to defend its territorial integrity against multiple threats at the same time.

The missile defense systems in Japan are only able to engage an incoming target once it is more than 30 miles (50 kilometers) away. China has missiles that can be launched from a wide range of warplanes, from as far away as 186 miles.

Tokyo’s new defense strategy drew praise from its No. 1 ally, the United States, which shares a mutual defense treaty with Japan and is pledged to defend Japanese territory from attack. The United States also operates several large military installations in Japan, including Yokosuka Naval Base, home to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet.

The US Secretary of Defense said in a statement that they welcome the release of Japan’s strategy documents, which show the country’s commitment to uphold the international rules based order.

A professor with the University of Tokyo and a former defense ministry researcher told CNN that Taiwan is fundamental to its own security and not just a stress point in relations with China.

Given the scope of the changes to Japanese defense policy, the country’s main opposition party on Friday said Kishida hadn’t done enough to talk through the changes with them.

“There has been no provision of information, no explanations, and no discussion with the public or the Diet, even though we are deciding on things that will significantly change Japan’s post-war security policy,” Kenta Izumi, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said at a press conference.

China has warned Tokyo about the consequences of increasing military power because of the reports of the Japanese defense build-up.

Japan will become a dangerous and barbaric drift, and the end is a huge dark vortex, if they use this to guide the national security strategy. Global Times advised Japan to take it easy.

But analysts say it wasn’t until China launched military drills around Taiwan in August and fired those missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone that Tokyo really sat up and took notice of Beijing’s designs on the island.

A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, Xi Jinping’s backing of Vladimir Putin has opened the door for the United States and partners in the Pacific to shore up sometimes frayed relationships to the detriment of Beijing.

In the past few months alone, Japan has pledged to double defense spending and acquire long-range weapons from the US; South Korea has acknowledged that stability in the Taiwan Strait is essential to its security; the Philippines has announced new US base access rights and is talking about joint patrols of the South China Sea with Australia, Japan and the United States.

China has become isolated in its own backyard as it continues to ignore Moscow’s invasion of a country that it doesn’t recognise and it keeps military pressure on Taiwan.

Analysts say all these things would have likely happened without the war in Ukraine, but the war, and China’s backing of Russia, has helped grease the skids to get these projects done.

“I myself have a strong sense of urgency that Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a major defense conference in Singapore last summer.

In December, she followed up with a plan to double Tokyo’s defense spending while acquiring weapons that are well outside Japanese territory.

“The Japanese people have certainly taken notice of the situation in Ukraine, and it has made them feel more vulnerable as a nation,” said John Bradford, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratman School of International Studies in Singapore.

Beijing’s invasion of Korea, the informal Quad alliance, and the case for a stronger US-led alliance, as seen by the People’s Liberation Army

The People’s Liberation Army has been growing and modernizing its forces for years. On Sunday, Beijing announced its military budget for 2023, which will increase 7.2%. The military’s budget growth rate increased for three consecutive years for the first time in a decade.

In his government report, the outgoing premier said the armed forces needed to intensify military training and prepare for combat.

“Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is essential for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and it’s indispensable for security and prosperity of the region as a whole,” Foreign Minister Park Jin told CNN recently.

It signed a mulitibillion-dollar deal with Poland, a neighbor to the West and part of the US-led NATO alliance. And it is selling them in the region as well.

The former president did not like Washington and searched for ways to work with Bejing. But China never really showed any appreciation for that and his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., has shown himself eager to work with the US and its allies, the analysts said.

“It is difficult for the new Marcos administration to justify accommodating Beijing’s policy preferences when previous attempts at doing so by the previous government were not reciprocated,” said Jeffrey Ordaniel, director of maritime security at the Pacific Forum and an assistant professor at Tokyo International University.

“Beijing’s continued bullying, like we saw in the case of the China Coast Guard blinding Philippines Coast Guard sailors with a laser (recently), has only helped to make the case for a stronger alliance” with Washington, said Blake Herzinger, a nonresident fellow and Indo-Pacific defense policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

The countries of Singapore and Vietnam have become more open to greater US footprints. They don’t want China to dominate Southeast Asia,” Ordaniel said.

But the Ukraine war has not been helpful in one key American partnership in the Indo-Pacific, the informal Quad alliance linking the US, Japan, Australia and India, according to analysts.

“When the US, Australia, and Japan tried to condemn Russia through a joint statement, India refused…. The Quad only tackles Pacific challenges, and since Russia isn’t in the region, this topic can’t be discussed.