Both elevators aboard Izumo class ships are more than capable of lifting F-35B's from the hanger and the other way around...
China's SCS Strategy Thread
- Thread starter lilzz
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antiterror13
Brigadier
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
It is strange what would Japan gain by getting involve in SCS other than upsetting China
An update of the previous article by reuters.
Fri Jun 23, 2017 | 6:32am EDT
Japanese warship takes Asian guests on cruise in defiance of China
By Nobuhiro Kubo | SOUTH CHINA SEA
Japan's largest warship steamed into the South China Sea this week in defiance of Chinese assertiveness, with Asian military guests on board to witness helicopters looping over the tropical waters and gunners blasting target buoys.
China claims most of the energy-rich sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, much of it to and from Japanese ports. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
Japan worries that China is cementing its control in the South China Sea with manmade island bases, arms sales and development aid.
"We are not just here to show our presence, but from the outside that is what it looks like," Rear Admiral Yoshihiro Goga, the commander of the mission, said aboard the Izumo-class helicopter carrier.
Military officers from the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) boarded the 248-metre carrier in Singapore on Monday. It returned on Friday after demonstrating naval skills and kit Tokyo hopes will help it bolster alliances in the region.
The Izumo turned back to Singapore before crossing a boundary known as the nine-dash-line into what China claims are its waters.
The high-profile cruise was part of a hitherto unseen coordinated push by Japan's Self Defense Forces and defense bureaucrats to bolster ties with countries ringing the contested waters. It also marked a concerted push into military diplomacy by hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan last week held a military technology seminar near Tokyo for representatives from Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore and this week invited ASEAN officers to a disaster relief drill in Tokyo.
Abe's government believes Japan may be better placed to prise Southeast Asian nations away from Chinese influence than its U.S. allies with a gentler approach that emphasizes a common Asian heritage, two sources with knowledge of the diplomatic strategy told Reuters earlier.
While the U.S. has confronted China directly by sending warships close to China's island bases in the South China Sea, Japan so far has shied away from similar provocations.
As the Izumo neared the nine-dash line, the crew were on lookout for Chinese aircraft or ships sent to shadow the flag ship. Apart from brief radar contact with an unidentified aircraft announced by the ship's public address system the carrier, however, sailed on unmolested.
(For a graphic on leading aircraft carriers, click tmsnrt.rs/2mTtS0y)
(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo; Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Nick Macfie)
An update of the previous article by reuters.
Fri Jun 23, 2017 | 6:32am EDT
Japanese warship takes Asian guests on cruise in defiance of China
By Nobuhiro Kubo | SOUTH CHINA SEA
Japan's largest warship steamed into the South China Sea this week in defiance of Chinese assertiveness, with Asian military guests on board to witness helicopters looping over the tropical waters and gunners blasting target buoys.
China claims most of the energy-rich sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, much of it to and from Japanese ports. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
Japan worries that China is cementing its control in the South China Sea with manmade island bases, arms sales and development aid.
"We are not just here to show our presence, but from the outside that is what it looks like," Rear Admiral Yoshihiro Goga, the commander of the mission, said aboard the Izumo-class helicopter carrier.
Military officers from the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) boarded the 248-metre carrier in Singapore on Monday. It returned on Friday after demonstrating naval skills and kit Tokyo hopes will help it bolster alliances in the region.
The Izumo turned back to Singapore before crossing a boundary known as the nine-dash-line into what China claims are its waters.
The high-profile cruise was part of a hitherto unseen coordinated push by Japan's Self Defense Forces and defense bureaucrats to bolster ties with countries ringing the contested waters. It also marked a concerted push into military diplomacy by hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan last week held a military technology seminar near Tokyo for representatives from Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore and this week invited ASEAN officers to a disaster relief drill in Tokyo.
Abe's government believes Japan may be better placed to prise Southeast Asian nations away from Chinese influence than its U.S. allies with a gentler approach that emphasizes a common Asian heritage, two sources with knowledge of the diplomatic strategy told Reuters earlier.
While the U.S. has confronted China directly by sending warships close to China's island bases in the South China Sea, Japan so far has shied away from similar provocations.
As the Izumo neared the nine-dash line, the crew were on lookout for Chinese aircraft or ships sent to shadow the flag ship. Apart from brief radar contact with an unidentified aircraft announced by the ship's public address system the carrier, however, sailed on unmolested.
(For a graphic on leading aircraft carriers, click tmsnrt.rs/2mTtS0y)
(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo; Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Nick Macfie)
1)China is known to extend maritime customs to other geographical locations. Japanese own issues with China make them nervous. This has many implications.
2)Japan is a net beneficiary of the current maritime laws (namely, UNCLOS). Attempt to challenge them at such scale isn't just dangerous(see p.4), it can crumble whole structure.
3)Same thing makes them look for "allies of chance". Or at least to attempt preventing them from being "bullied" by sheer superiority of Chinese assets. Or, which is more dangerous, from letting them succumb to the pressure(not only "negative" one - i.e. forces, but "positive" - Chinese investment, bilateral agreements) - i.e. to remain nearly alone.
4)Japan is very vulnerable to SCS issue since very large percentage of her trade passes here.
It's especially true for oil and related products. As we remember, Japanese have their own WW2 experience, quite a painful one.
antiterror13
Brigadier
I think Japan realises that, but I believe Japan was asked by the US to do so ... so no choice for Japan
Also Japan is not alone doing it, together with the mighty USN
I have yet to see Japan doing it alone without USN protection
This is the typical quality of Western journalism when it come to SCS, we have already see they cannot differentiate between Spratly and Paracel now, ladies and gens, they have added Hainan to that list.
I guess any islands in SCS is an island, therefore it must be in dispute lol
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Well the Vietnamese do claim Hainan is Vietnamese territory. I'm sure the US wouldn't mind considering it contested territory and the Vietnamese taking control.
What are you talking about? Vietnam is absolutely not claiming Hainan is their territory, the only connection I can see is the Kingdom of Nanyue founded in 204BC by a Chinese general from Qin, which including the land of today's Northern Vietnam + Guangxi + Hainan, but Han dynasty soon over took all of Nanyue and northern Nanyue became today's Guangxi and the southern part became independent and bases of Vietnam nation.
If this is the bases of Vietnam's claim, then by the same logic that Nanyue was founded by a Chinese, therefore China claims all of Vietnam. I don't think Vietnamese wants to go that rout.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
I'm sure the government isn't saying it out loud just like South Korea doesn't say out loud that they see parts of Northeast China are Korean territory. Also I've heard Mongolians claim the Gobi Desert is theirs. I've heard plenty of Vietnamese say Hainan and parts of Southern China is Vietnamese territory. History is irrelevant. Plenty of people would love to see China carved up like Europeans did in the 1800s. Any excuse to lessen China. Of course the governments wouldn't declare it but if they see the US at war with China... The US can't occupy China by itself and can't look like imperialists again.
At the Cairo accords during WWII, the allies, including the US, agreed that most of the islands in dispute today in control of Japan were to go back to countries that historically claimed them. The US backed out of that agreement after WWII and decided unilaterally that they all belonged to Japan because they needed Japan as a strong pro-West fortress in the Western Pacific in face of the Cold War. History or treaties played no part in that decision just US self-interests. That's why the US was hesitant to act against China recently in these disputes, because the US would love to declare islands China claims belong to Japan but US ally South Korea also claims islands in control of Japan that the US gave after WWII. To declare islands claimed by China belong to Japan would also include the ones South Korea claims. That wouldn't sit well with South Korea. If those islands were excluded, China would most certainly act and thus there would be war.
Then in that case I wouldn't worry about it, Vietnam or any nation is not officially disputing Hainan, ambition and wishful thinking is one thing but claim is another, Vietnam has as much claim on Hainan as China have claim for all of Vietnam and Korea itself.