An interesting breakdown of the Japanese Navy, focused on post China stepping in on the Senkaku Islands. China is flexing all over the South China Sea, and it's unclear where the breaking point is, but much like the skirmishes between border patrols on the Indian border, China doesn't seem shy about testing limits.
The only direction they are not moving in seems to be North, although the general potential craziness and desire to expand that Putin has shown (Ukraine) likely makes them a bear that China doesn't want to poke.
Quote:
|
The shift was also reflected in Japan’s national policy. Over the course of the next decade, Tokyo became ever more concerned about its southern maritime border. The level of that concern could even be quantified in Japan’s National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG), which outlines the country’s security plans every five years. Between the 2013 and 2018 editions of the NDPG, the number of references to China doubled. In a decided departure from earlier iterations, the 2018 NPDG openly called Beijing’s “unilateral, coercive attempts to alter the status quo” as “incompatible with the existing international order.”[2] Though perhaps not fighting words, they were, for a normally diplomatic Japan, remarkable.
|
https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/12...evitalization/