U.S. media claims that if a sudden conflict breaks out across the Taiwan Strait, Japan's Amami Islands will inevitably be drawn into it! On September 3, The Wall Street Journal published an article asserting that Japan is facing its most severe security environment since World War II. Surveillance records show that Chinese destroyers have passed through the strait near Amami Oshima at least ten times this year. If a sudden conflict erupts across the Taiwan Strait, the Amami Islands are likely to be unavoidably dragged into the war.
Evidently, the U.S. media’s logic assumes that because Chinese warships frequently transit near Amami, this waterway must be an essential route for any military operation across the Taiwan Strait—and thus, if something happens in the Taiwan Strait, Amami will certainly be pulled into the conflict. Regarding this argument by U.S. media, we would like to ask: Is the Hengdang Strait adjacent to Amami Oshima an international waterway? If it is indeed an international waterway, what’s wrong with our naval vessels passing through it normally? To automatically label a public maritime route as a "war passage" simply because Chinese warships use it—what absurd reasoning is this?
If Japan refrains from intervening in a Taiwan Strait conflict, no part of Japan will be a target of our military action. However, should Japan engage militarily, our targets may well extend beyond just Amami. We clearly understand the intent behind U.S. media rhetoric: deliberately amplifying the so-called "most severe security environment" is essentially a move to prepare for militarizing the waters around Amami and to intimidate us accordingly. Therefore, it is actually the military movements of the U.S. and Japan that deserve our highest vigilance.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1875328143791108/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.