China-Russia Cooperation Deepening over Taiwan: Japan Report

Tokyo, Nov. 20 (Jiji Press)–China and Russia have been deepening military cooperation over Taiwan and the East and South China seas, a Japanese government think tank said Thursday. In an annual report on China’s military activities, the National Institute for Defense Studies, a think tank of Japan’s Defense Ministry, also said that the trilateral relationship among China, Russia and North Korea is heightening uncertainties in the security environment of the Indo-Pacific region. The report noted that China and Russia are regularly conducting military drills and joint air and sea patrols as a counter to the Western-led international order and that Russia cooperates with China especially in addressing regional flashpoints such as Taiwan. “The development of Sino-Russian military-to-military relations has contributed to reinforcing China’s operational capabilities in the Indo-Pacific,” it added. The People’s Liberation Army of China expanded its drill activities around Taiwan after Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited the self-ruled island in 2022, the report explained. The PLA is “maintaining readiness to scale up operations in response to developments in Taiwanese politics and U.S.-Taiwan relations,” it said. Noting that the leaders from China, Russia and North Korea got together at a ceremony held in Beijing in September to mark the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in a war against Japan, the report stressed that this meeting “is anticipated to act as a momentum for trilateral strategic coordination” and that Northeast Asia may see an intensification of a Japan-U.S.-South Korea versus China-Russia-North Korea bloc confrontation dynamic. “The Russian-North Korean rapprochement leads to the buildup of North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities,” the report added. As for policies toward China of the second administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the report presented analyses by experts within China. It then said, “The majority views that the U.S. alliance network has been maintained in the military domain, and that there has been no fundamental change in the competition strategy toward China adopted by the United States and its allies in the advanced technology domain.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]