Taiwan and Japan Are Trade and Military partners: President Chen
On the other hand, according to the "blue-water naval strategy" proposed in 1993 by Liu Huaqing, a former first vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, the Chinese navy must move its defense from the coastline to the first chain of outlying islands -- Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
In 1992, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress adopted the "Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone," which codified an unprecedented view of the ocean, saying that "ocean territory is an important part of China's living space." Based on a geopolitical analysis, China's power is land-based. The series of islands from Kyushu to Nansei-shoto in Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines separate China from the Pacific and blocks a possible extension of China's influence to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, India and Pakistan.
If, therefore, China wants to become an ocean-faring nation and a global force, it has to eliminate these negative geographical factors and the restrictions placed on it by Taiwan, to reach the Pacific Ocean. This means that Japan's sea lanes will come under threat. For Japan, the South China Sea and the waters off Taiwan are vital for transporting oil and other important strategic resources.
A 1996 long-term forecast of the security situation and Japan's proper defense preparations by the National Institute for Defense Studies under the Japan Defense Agency points out that the shipping lanes running through the Malacca Strait and the Bashi Strait will come under threat if China were to become an economic, military and political superpower.
With its growing influence in the region, it can be predicted that China will become the major force in East Asia if Japan continues to avoid taking on the role as the major military force in the area. #msg-4007221
The following text indicates Japan will take on the role of major military force in the area.
-Am
TAIWAN AND JAPAN ARE TRADE AND MILITARY PARTNERS: PRESIDENT CHEN
2004/09/10 21:43:42
Taipei, Sept. 10 (CNA) The relationship between Taiwan and Japan is based on their common interests in trade, military affairs and values, President Chen Shui-bian said Friday. Receiving two visiting Japanese Dietmen, Seiichiro Murakami and Ichiro Kamoshita, the president said both Taiwan and Japan believe in democracy, freedom and human rights, and this cements their ties. The two countries are close trading partners, Chen said, adding that they are also military partners with the same interests in peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. They also face the same threat from mainland China's military building-up and missile deployments. Noting that Beijing has blocked Taiwan's entry into the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, Chen said his country would be very thankful if Japan could organize an international conference that Taiwan is able to attend. (By Maubo Chang) ENDITEM/mw
President Bush has a long-standing position that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a vast stockpile of oil stored underground should only be used in the event of a critical cutoff of fuel needed to maintain the country’s national defense.
“That petroleum reserve is in place in case of major disruptions of energy supplies to the United States,” Bush said Wednesday. “The idea of emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would put America in a dangerous position in the war on terror. We’re at war. We face a tough and determined enemy on all fronts, and we must not put ourselves in a worse position in this war, and playing politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would do just that.” - May 19, 2004
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, established in 1975 after the original OPEC-induced “oil shock,” is a series of underground salt domes in four sites in Texas and Louisiana. Beginning in 2001, when the reserves stood at about 540 million barrels, the Bush administration has been steadily topping off the stockpile, which has a capacity of 700 million barrels. Currently, the SPR contains about 660 million barrels. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5015445/
House Panel OKs Oil Reserve Measure Source: Associated Press Publication date: 2001-10-04 In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and prospects of U.S. military retaliation, there has been concern over future oil supplies, although Middle East suppliers, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have vowed to keep supplies stable. #msg-193081
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China to start filling oil reserves next year
SYDNEY: China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, may begin filling a strategic oil stockpile in the next year as demand at home surges and concerns mount over global supply disruptions, a senior government official said on Monday.
Zhou Dadi, director general of the Energy Research Institute, said China would initially store enough oil to meet demand for 20 days before increasing the stockpile further. “We are building storage facilities right now ... Within the next year could be a starting point to fill the storage step by step,” Zhou told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress in Sydney.
Zhou did not specify how many tanks would be ready for use from next year.
“Last year we imported about 80 million tonnes (2.19 million barrels per day) of crude oil, but this year it could be more than 100 million tonnes, so the 20 days is just a start.” Official customs data for 2003 showed that China imported 91 million tonnes of crude oil.
China imports more than 40 percent of its crude needs, a proportion that is rising as domestic production declines and consumption shoots higher to fuel robust economic growth.
Chinese oil firms usually hold between 10 and 30 days of oil stocks as part of commercial operations, but Beijing has become increasingly concerned over the last couple of years over its lack of emergency stockpiles as oil prices have risen to record levels close to $50 a barrel and China’s demand has jumped.
Most industrialised nations hold huge reserves. The United States, the world’s largest oil consumer, held 668.4 million barrels at the end of August and plans to raise inventories to 700 million in 2005. But in Asia only Japan and South Korea, which import virtually all of their oil and gas requirements, hold emergency stocks. China and India have long talked of plans.
Four sites earmarked: China has earmarked four sites on the eastern seaboard — Zhenhai and Aoshan in Zhejiang province, Huangdao in Shandong and Dalian in Liaoning — to build 16 million cubic metres (100.6 million barrels) of strategic reserves, about 20 days of consumption.
Top refiner Sinopec has started construction of 5.2 million cubic metres of storage in Zhenhai. These tanks are expected to be the first to be filled. Zhou said he did not expect growth in China’s oil demand in 2005 to exceed this year’s rate of 7-10 percent, while increases in electricity capacity should ease the power crunch on industry. reuters
Note: Both the Pentagon and the Commission on U.S-China Economic and Security Review cited Beijing as a major threat to U.S. national security. The two reports noted the growing military capability of China combined with its predatory economic policy is aimed directly at the United States. #msg-3379438 #msg-4007221
China is our number one threat, not terrorism. Therefore Bush’s world war that will last decades will be with China. #msg-3969668
The following excerpt indicates Japan will take on the role of major military force in the area.
Chen said, adding that they are also military partners with the same interests in peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. They also face the same threat from mainland China's military building-up and missile deployments. #msg-4008259
They seem to be building something here, people, don't just concentrate on terrorism.
-Am
Japan set to label China as war threat James Brooke/NYT Wednesday, September 15, 2004 Koizumi advisers reportedly urging a shift in strategy
TOKYO Reflecting growing wariness between the two giants of Asia, an advisory panel to Japan's prime minister will recommend that China be viewed as a potential military threat for the first time, a newspaper here reported Wednesday.
Since the end of World War II, Japan has regarded its main military threat as coming from the north, Russia, and from the west, North Korea. But now, according to the report in Japan's leading business newspaper, Nihon Keizai, the 10-member advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will recommend that China, its neighbor to the southwest, be regarded as a potential military threat.
Although China has about 10 times the population of Japan, its traditional dominance of Asia was in remission during the 20th century as it was hobbled first by civil war and Japanese military rule, then by half a century of communist economic policies.
With the recent market-oriented economic boom, China's economy is expected to surpass that of Japan in 15 years. Already it is investing heavily in military spending.
“While the Russian military capability in the Far East has dropped dramatically in the last 15 years, conversely, China has gone on a big spending boom,” Lance Gatling, an American aerospace and defense consultant, said in an interview Wednesday. “They are looking at a deep-water navy, more offensive weapons, reconnaissance satellites.
“The panel will not call it directly a military threat, but the concern about a conflict between Taiwan and China is quite real, and Japan is concerned about getting drawn into that.”
Japanese and American officials have held discussions this week about the possibility of permitting U.S. and Japanese military flights to an island with a civilian landing strip that is almost halfway between Okinawa and Taiwan. According to a Washington-based defense expert visiting Tokyo, Japan is considering the request, along with a proposal to build a port on the island, Shimoji Shima, that would be able to berth Japanese ships equipped with antimissile batteries. In recent years, Japan has used the missile and nuclear program of North Korea as public justification for its growing partnership with the United States in developing a missile defense. This has allowed Japanese military planners to avoid talking about China, one of the world's five major nuclear powers.
Japanese officials hope to avoid getting drawn into any conflict between China and Taiwan, a former Japanese colony that Beijing regards as a breakaway province. However, the East China Sea is seeing a rise in direct tensions between China and Japan.
Boatloads of Chinese nationalist groups, allegedly privately financed, have tried to land this year on the Senkakus, about 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, northwest of Shimoji Shima. This uninhabited archipelago is claimed by both nations.
In addition, China has started laying a gas line across the seabed toward an area that Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. While the Chinese drill for gas, a Japanese survey boat is conducting its own research.
“Since China is deploying military vessels, there are people saying this is a matter for our Self-Defense Forces, and I am really worried,” Yukio Okamoto, a former prime ministerial aide for Okinawa, said in an interview, referring to the Japanese armed forces.
While military tensions appear to be on the rise, booming trade with China is credited with pushing much of Japan's current economic recovery.
With Toyota recently announcing a $500 million investment in China, China is expected to displace the United States this year as Japan's top trading partner.
However, this economic bonanza could be threatened by widespread anti-Japanese sentiment in China and by Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni, a Shinto shrine to Japan's war dead.
“Toyota is worried about a Chinese boycott,” an aide to Koizumi said Wednesday. Referring to heavy pressure by Japanese businesses on Koizumi to improve relations with China, he said: “Japan is starting to lose contracts.”
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