Japan to expand island military base near Taiwan after China’s missile drills

Name: Mainland China launches largest military drill in the Taiwan Strait after Pelosi’s visit
Uploaded: 2023-01-10T00:00:28.000Z
Duration: 2 min 46 s
Description: Mainland China launches largest military drill in the Taiwan Strait after Pelosi’s visit

Deployment of a missile unit on Yonaguni island – which is just 110km from Taiwan – would strengthen defences in the region in case of a regional conflict

In August, six Chinese missiles fell near Yonaguni after PLA units conducted exercises following then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei

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An aerial view of Yonaguni island, Okinawa prefecture. Photo: Reuters

Julian Ryall

Published: 8:00am, 10 Jan 2023Updated: 8:00am, 11 Jan 2023

Japan is expanding a military base on a tiny island east of Taiwan months after the Chinese military’s ballistic missiles landed near its shores last year, rattling locals amid worsening regional military tensions.

Yonaguni, a remote outpost of Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture, is located 110km from Taiwan and is near the Diaoyu Islands, a group of islands claimed by Beijing but administered by Tokyo as the Senkakus.

In August, Yonaguni’s 1,700 residents were shocked when six Chinese missiles fell just off its shores, in waters Tokyo considers to be within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

The weapons were part of air and sea exercises conducted by Chinese military units in response to a visit to Taiwan by then-speaker of the US House, Nancy Pelosi.

The island’s small town hall was inundated with inquiries about what to do and where to gather if the situation worsened. As a precaution, Yonaguni fishermen were instructed to remain in port.

China effectively ignored Japan’s subsequent protests, and earlier said there was no exclusive economic zone in the waters where the missiles landed because the two nations had not agreed on the limits.

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Mainland China launches largest military drill in the Taiwan Strait after Pelosi’s visit

Work is now under way on Yonaguni to expand a base for the Japan Self-Defence Forces and deploy a surface-to-air missile unit to the island. Given the presence of Japanese forces and the island’s proximity to Taiwan – making it strategically important – analysts have suggested that it would inevitably be attacked in the event of a regional conflict.