RED LANTERNS Chinese missiles fall near Taiwan. Japan on alert

The Dongfeng launch is part of military exercises in response to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. The Chinese have delimited an area of ​​operations for a week to carry out their maneuvers. Some of this overlaps with Japan’s exclusive economic zone that Beijing does not recognize.

Taipei () – China has launched a series of Dongfeng ballistic missiles in waters near Taiwan, as part of military exercises that began today in response to the visit to the Taiwanese capital of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives. .USA

The Taipei Defense Ministry said the missiles fell into the sea at two different points in the southwest and northeast of the island. While Pelosi was still on mission in Taiwan -between yesterday and the day before yesterday-, Beijing had announced naval and missile maneuvers in six maritime areas near Taiwanese territory that were closed to the passage of unauthorized ships and aircraft. The Chinese today added a seventh exclusion zone to the east of the island and extended the exercises until August 8.

Three of the six interdiction zones reported by Chinese state media encroach on Taiwan’s territorial waters, an unprecedented development that could lead to a military escalation between the two sides.

The missile launch that took place today also put Japan on alert. The Chinese Dongfeng reached an exercise zone -to the northeast of Taiwan- that overlaps with the Japanese exclusive economic zone, near the Sakishima Islands, Okinawa prefecture (see photo 2). In two of these, Yonaguni and Miyako, there are bases of the Japanese Armed Forces; in a third, Ishigaki, an outpost with surface-to-air and anti-ship missile systems is being built.

The region also includes the Senkaku Islands, washed by the East China Sea, which the Chinese call Diaoyu and claim as their own even though they are administered by Tokyo.

Concerned about Chinese military activities, Japanese authorities have asked fishing fleets that regularly operate near Yonaguni, the closest Japanese territory to Taiwan, to keep their distance to avoid accidents with Beijing’s naval units.

Regarding the overlapping of Chinese staging areas with its own exclusive economic zone, the Tokyo government has contacted Beijing through diplomatic channels. Yesterday, however, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the military exercises against Taiwan are “legitimate and necessary” and that “China does not accept the concept of what is called a Japanese exclusive economic zone.”

One of the no-go areas China announced also overlaps with the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

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