Japan flexes its muscles; agrees to help defend Taiwan

I hadn’t planned to publish a post today, but in a bit of surprising news, Japan has come out and said that the country must assist the United States in defending the island of Taiwan, should China invade.

The comments were made by the Deputy Premier and they fall in line with Japanese sentiment toward China.

A poll from last November shows a staggering 89.7% of Japanese respondents have an unfavorable or relatively unfavorable view of China, according to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation.

The comments by the Deputy Premier follow an increasingly aggressive defensive posture by Japan.

In February of this year, Japan stated that it had performed 25 missions in 2020 in defense of US ships or planes. (This honestly surprised me, but I came across it while researching this post.)

The less-defensive posture goes back to 2014 when Japan expanded its defense policy to go beyond merely responding to an attack on Japan.

These policies are clearly popular. Sixty percent of those polled in Japan stated their animosity to China results from “China's frequent violations of Japan's territorial waters and airspace around the Senkaku Islands.”

The same article states that Chinese government ships have sailed just outside Japan's territorial waters around the islands for a record 300 days this year.

This is clearly GREAT news for America as it tries to balance the rising power of China. As I read somewhere else, throw in India, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other Asian countries, and China can be much more easily controlled.

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That’s it from a news perspective.

One housekeeping matter, for those who missed yesterday’s post, you’ll see things look a bit different. (Including the hosting address, if you’re super observant.)

As I mentioned yesterday, WordPress has become too clunky for me to effectively — and quickly — use anymore. This site will allow me to post things more quickly and effectively. (Too technical to try to explain, but believe me, it’s a big difference.)

Additionally, this site will allow my followers to support me if they choose. (No pressure on that.) You can learn more about that here: https://stanrmitchell.substack.com/p/coming-soon.

If you want to skip reading that, I basically plan to post about military matters, some politics, and other cool things I happen across. I also plan to continue to honor veterans with interviews, which as you know, is something I love to do.

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Finally, on a lighter note, let’s end this entry with some pretty cool pics of BIG ships crossing through the Suez Canal.

I thought these photos were incredible.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the UK’s carrier moving through the Suez, which is honestly bigger and wider than I thought:

HMS Queen Elizabeth🇬🇧 @HMSQNLZ

Phase 2 of our #CSG21 deployment has begun! 🎉 A hazy day as we pass through the Suez Canal 🇪🇬, next the Red Sea and then onto the Indian Ocean. #GlobalBritain @UKinEgypt 🇬🇧🌍

And here’s our own carrier making the crossing:

U.S. Fleet Forces @USFleetForces

Demonstrating the inherent flexibility of the U.S. Navy, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) carrier strike group recently transited the Suez Canal and entered the #MediterraneanSea. U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet.

Please make sure you share the post if you enjoyed it!

Semper Fidelis,

Stan R. Mitchell

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please consider becoming a paying subscriber. It’s only $5 per month and you can stop at any time. Another way to help support the channel is to share or tell a friend about it. Finally, don’t forget to check out my books. I write military and mystery thrillers. You can find all ten books here: amazon.com.