‘Chess piece against China’: US & Japan launch major military exercise to prove ‘growing strength’ of their alliance (PHOTOS)

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China has recently slammed the US over selling arms and aiming at military ties with Taiwan, and has repeatedly urged the US to observe the one-China principle. “We will continue taking necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and security interests,” China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday.

Tokyo sent warships for anti-submarine training in the South China Sea earlier this month. The move prompted a cold response from Beijing, which argued that regular Japanese and US naval exercises raise tensions in the region. Commenting on the earlier drills, Lijian said Beijing hoped that Japan would not “do things detrimental to regional peace, security and stability.”

On Sunday, Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times published a story claiming that Japan plans to “put China under siege” over a maritime border dispute. The paper quoted Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, as saying that the Keen Sword drill shows how Tokyo and Washington are “making actual military preparations for conflicts with China.” Li added that the US “wants to use Japan as a chess piece to contain China in the Asia-Pacific region.”

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