标题: Nightmare of a Hemmed-in China Materializes, Which Coined 第一岛链 [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 12-18-2015 11:24 标题: Nightmare of a Hemmed-in China Materializes, Which Coined 第一岛链 Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo, Exclusive: Japan's Far-Flung Island Defense Plan Seeks to Turn Tables on China. Reuters, Dec 18, 2015. http://www.reuters.com/article/u ... USKBN0U107220151218
(first island chain "may come to define a boundary between US and Chinese spheres of influence")
Quote:
"The United States * * * has pushed Japan to abandon its decades-old bare-bones home island defense in favor of exerting its military power in Asia. Tokyo is responding by stringing a line of anti-ship, anti-aircraft missile batteries along 200 islands in the East China Sea
"it is the first time such officials [from the context, it is hard to tell whether they are Japanese officials only, or American ones also] have spelled out that the deployment will help keep China at bay in the Western Pacific and amounts to a Japanese version of the "anti-access/area denial" doctrine, known as 'A2/AD' in military jargon
"Japan's counter to China in the East China Sea began in 2010, two years before Abe took power. The predecessor Democratic Party of Japan [DPJ] government pivoted away from protecting the northern island of Hokkaido against a Soviet invasion that never came to defending the southwest island chain. 'The growing influence of China and the relative decline of the US was a factor,' said Akihisa NAKASHIMA 長島 昭久, a DPJ lawmaker who as vice minister of defense 防衛副大臣 [Oct to Dec, 2012 (ended when DPJ lost the general election to LDP; also under prime minister Noda] helped craft that change.
"One crucial change, said [Kevin] Maher[, who headed the US State Department's Office of Japan Affairs for two years until 2011]: the US and Japanese military can now plan and practice for war together and deliver a 'force multiplier.'
Note:
(a) "China's President Xi Jinping has set great store in developing an ocean-going 'blue water' navy capable of defending the country's growing global interests."
set great store by someone or something:
(i) "to have positive expectations for someone or something; to have high hopes for someone or something
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, 2002
(ii) "to believe that something is very important or valuable"
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed 2006. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/set+great+store+by
(b) "Satoshi MORIMOTO 森本 敏, a Takushoku University 拓殖大学 [1900- private; Tokyo-based] professor who was defense minister in 2012 [under prime minister Yoshihiko NODA 野田 佳彦 of DPJ] and advises the current defense chief, Gen NAKATANI 中谷 元."
(c) "Yōsuke ISOZAKI 礒崎 陽輔, Abe's first security adviser until September and a key author of a national defense strategy published in 2013"
Japanese English dictionary:
* iso 磯(P); 礒 【いそ】 (n): "(rocky) beach; seashore"
* noboru 上る(P); 登る(P); 昇る(P); 陞る(oK) 【のぼる】 (v): "to ascend; to go up; to climb"
(d) "Those [Japanese] troops [in Okinawa], manning missile batteries and radar stations, will be backed up by marine units on the mainland, stealthy submarines, F-35 warplanes, amphibious fighting vehicles, aircraft carriers as big as World War Two flat-tops and ultimately the US Seventh Fleet headquartered at Yokosuka, south of Tokyo."
(i) So Japan is going to build aircraft carriers, though it may not call them by this name?
After all, Hyūga-class helicopter destroyer ひゅうが型護衛艦 (named after an ancient Hyūga Province 日向国, on the eastern side of 九州) has standard displacement of 13,950 tons, whereas the last batch of Japanese navy in World War II -- Unryū-class aircraft carriers 雲龍型航空母艦 -- had standard displacement of 17,760 tons.
(ii) displacement (ship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_(ship)
(e) "Anti-ship missiles designed 30 years ago to destroy Soviet landing craft heading for Hokkaido are being deployed to draw the defensive curtain [to close gaps] along the southwest island chain. Able to lob a 225-kg (500-lb) warhead 180 km, they have enough range to cover the gaps between the islands along the chain, said Noboru YAMAGUCHI 山口 昇 [see (c) above], a Sasakawa Peace Foundation 笹川平和財団 [established in 1886 by 笹川 良一] adviser and former general who procured them three decades ago."
(f) "Ryōta TAKEDA 武田 良太, a lawmaker who as vice defense minister until Sept 2014 [from 2013; in 第2次安倍内閣]"
My comment:
(a) Island Chain Strategy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Chain_Strategy
("The Island Chain Strategy is a strategy first mentioned by American foreign policy commentator John Foster Dulles [secretary of state 1953-1959] in 1951 during the Korean War. It suggests surrounding the USSR and China by sea. * * * Within Chinese writings the Island Chain Strategy is divided into 3 parts, namely First Island Chain, the Second Island Chain and the Third Island Chain")
In other words, Dulles first proposed the strategy, and China, the three island chains.
(b) During Cold War, Soviet navy was boxed in, too.
(c) In this light, neither US nor Japan can afford losing Taiwan to China.