[The Epoch Times, January 09, 2023](Epoch Times reporter Xia Yu comprehensive report) The top general of the US Marine Corps in Japan said that the US and Japanese armed forces are rapidly integrating their command structures and expanding joint operations because the US China and its Asian allies are preparing for potential conflict, including a war in the Taiwan Strait and with China.
Lieutenant General James Bierman, commander of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force of the US Marine Corps in Japan, told the Financial Times that last year, the two countries’ militaries conducted exercises on territory they had to defend in the event of war. “exponential growth”.
Bierman said that the United States and its Asian allies are following the example of Western countries in supporting Ukraine’s preparations for resisting Russia and preparing for situations such as the Chinese Communist Party’s invasion of Taiwan.
“Why have we been successful in Ukraine? It’s largely because after the Russian aggression in 2014 and 2015, we seriously prepared for future conflicts: training Ukrainians, pre-positioning supplies, making sure we could provide support , to maintain the location of the operation,” he said.
“We call it a layout. We’re doing it in Japan, the Philippines and other places,” Bierman said.
Bierman was unusually candid in comparing the war in Ukraine to a potential conflict with China. The scale and complexity of China’s military exercises near Taiwan has increased significantly in recent years. The Chinese military said on Monday (Jan. 9) that it conducted a “combat-oriented exercise” around Taiwan on Sunday, focusing on land strikes and sea assaults, the second such exercise in less than a month.
The Financial Times reported on January 9 that Japan and the Philippines are also strengthening defense cooperation with the United States in the face of China’s increasingly tough attitude.
The U.S. Army Confronts the Chinese Communist Party’s “Anti-Access Area Denial” Strategy
The 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force is the only Marine Corps crisis response force permanently stationed outside the United States and operates within range of China’s medium and long-range missiles, which China has been trying to use to limit U.S. operations in the region free.
The unit is at the center of a comprehensive overhaul of the Marine Corps aimed at replacing the U.S. military’s focus on counterinsurgency in the Middle East, with the creation of small military units dedicated to fast and covert operations on islands and straits in East and Southeast Asia, an “anti-access zone” against China in the Western Pacific Deny” strategy.
For this strategy to work, tight alignment with allies is critical, Bierman said. For the first time in a series of recent exercises, the Marine Corps has established a bilateral ground tactical coordination center.
In another sign of deepening U.S.-Japan cooperation, specific Japanese military units have been designated as part of a “replacement force” with the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, as well as U.S. Navy and Air Force units.
Bierman added that, unlike the “circular” collaboration between Japanese military units and their American counterparts in the past, allied units responsible for operational planning are forming a “permanent community of interest.”
He also said that although the U.S. military is paying attention to the CCP’s aggression around Taiwan, it should not overestimate the CCP’s military.
“When you talk about the complexity, the scale of some of the operations that they had to do, let’s say (in) invading Taiwan, there would be signs and warnings, and within a certain geography and time frame, allow us to take a stand and do Be as prepared as possible,” he said.
On Wednesday, the U.S. and Japan will hold a “2+2” security meeting between their foreign ministers and defense ministers; on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will discuss strengthening the alliance at a summit in Washington. And the summit comes as Japan embarks on a major security policy shift that includes increasing defense spending and deploying missiles capable of hitting the mainland.
U.S. military plans to strengthen military presence in the Philippines
As another location for the U.S. military, and as part of preparations for war, the Philippines plans to allow the U.S. military to deploy weapons and other supplies at five additional bases, which the U.S. already has available in the Philippines.
The geographic location of the Philippines puts the country at the center of U.S. plans to deter and respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. Of the five U.S. treaty allies in the Indo-Pacific (Australia, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand), the Philippines is the closest to Taiwan, with its northernmost island of Luzon just 200 kilometers (120 miles) away.
“You gain a point of leverage, a base of operations, which gives you a huge head start in different operating initiatives,” Bierman said.
He went on to say that when the US military confronts the CCP, the CCP will have the starting gun (referring to launching aggression) and may initiate hostilities. “We can identify decisive critical areas that must be controlled, protected, defended and exploited.”
On November 21, 2022, U.S. Vice President Harrison Harris visited the Philippines, becoming the highest-level visit of the Biden administration to the country. He Jinli’s trip not only seeks to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, but at the same time, the US also seeks to strengthen its military presence in the Philippines.
Washington and the Philippines are advancing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The United States has proposed adding more sites to the current five EDCA sites, deepening cooperation between the two countries.
Reuters reported in November 2022 that Gregory Poling, an expert on Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, believed that considering the distance between the Philippines and Taiwan and its treaty obligations to the United States, the Philippines should be involved in a conflict across the Taiwan Strait. It is extremely difficult to remain neutral. Not only would the Philippines be the most likely destination for refugees from Taiwan, but the roughly 150,000 Filipinos living in Taiwan would be under any threat of Chinese attack.
Editor in charge: Ye Ziwei