Japan Prepares Missile Blockade In East China Sea To Halt Chinese “Maritime Aggression”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
12/18/2015
Late last month in “South Pacific Showdown? Japan May Send Warships To China Islands,” we documented a meeting between Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Philippines President Benigno Aquino on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held in Manila.
The two leaders discussed the possibility that Japan could provide Manila with “large ships” that the Philippines can use to patrol the South China Sea.
This was, of course, a direct response to China, whose land reclamation efforts in the Spratlys have ruffled more than a few feathers in the South Pacific.
“The deal will mark the first time Japan has agreed to directly donate military equipment to another country, and is the latest example of Abe’s more muscular security agenda,” Reuters reported on at the time, before adding that “rather than challenge Beijing directly by sending warships or planes to patrol the South China Sea, Japan is helping to build the military capacity of friendly nations with claims to parts of the waterway.”
Despite the contention that Abe has no immediate plans to “directly challenge” the PLA navy, the PM also told Obama that Japan would consider conducting “freedom of navigation” patrols in conjunction with the US around China’s man-made islands.
Recall that Washington has committed to sailing warships by the islands several times per year in a repeat of the pass-by the navy conducted in late October.
As we said last month, “if Japan starts to conduct the same type of exercises near the Spratlys that the US has now pledged to carry out at least twice per quarter, it will be more than Beijing can bear.”
The Rest…HERE
