America’s top naval general in Japan declared, in a remarkably candid interview with Financial Times, published on Monday, that US-NATO successes against Russia in Ukraine were the result of advance planning and preparation – in military jargon “setting the theatre» for war. He explained that this was precisely what the Pentagon is now doing in Japan and Asia, in preparation for conflict with China over Taiwan.
“Why have we achieved the level of success we have achieved in Ukraine?” Lt. Gen. James Bierman asked rhetorically. He left that a large part of that was after what he called “Russian aggression” in 2014 and 2015, “when we really went to prepare for future conflict: Training the Ukrainians, pre-deploying supplies, identifying locations where we could operate support from, and maintain operations.”
“We call it ‘setting the theatre‘. And now we are setting the theater in Japan, in the Philippines, and other locations.” In other words, the US is setting a trap for China by motivating the country to take military action against Taiwan, in the same way that it provoked Russia to invade Ukraine, after the US-backed coup in 2014, which overthrew a pro-Russian government.
Lieutenant General James Bierman is the commanding general of the US Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) and of Marine Forces Japan. Of note is that III MEF is the United States’ only naval emergency response force permanently stationed outside the United States. In other words, Bierman and his Marines will be on the front lines of any US-led conflict with China.
As Financial Times explained, the III MEF is “at the core of a far-reaching reform of [USAs] Marine Corps”. The focus shifts from the “war on terror” in the Middle East to “creating small units that specialize in fast and covert operations in the islands of East Asia and in the straits of the Western Pacific, to counter Beijing’s ‘anti-access area denial‘-strategy [dvs. nekting av tilgang].”
US plans for war against China – known as AirSea Battle – envisage a massive air and missile attack on Chinese military bases and strategic industries, supported by warships and submarines. The Pentagon has been increasingly concerned about China’s military capabilities to defend the country’s territory, and secure their nearby sea areas – “anti access area denial,» with their own missiles and naval vessels.
The US’s war preparations together with Japan are progressing rapidly. As Bierman boasted, the two militaries have “seen exponential increases … just over the past year,” in their activities in territories from which they would operate during a war. In recent military exercises, the Marines for the first time established bilateral tactical ground coordination centers, rather than liaising with a separate Japanese command post.
The goal is far closer integration of American and Japanese forces. Instead of Japanese military groups being rotated to operate alongside US forces in Japan, specific units are now designated as part of [det som benevnes] «the stand-in force,» along with their US Marine, Navy and Air Force counterparts.
Bierman also pointed out that similar preparations are being made in the Philippines, where the government intends to allow the US to pre-store weapons and other supplies at five additional bases in addition to the five where it already has access. “You get a breakpoint, a base of operations that gives you a huge head start in different operational plans,” he enthused.
The US-led war against Russia in Ukraine, and the country’s increasing confrontation with China, are two sides of a strategy to dominate the vast Eurasian land mass, which threatens to plunge humanity into a nuclear Holocaust.
While Bierman highlights the advanced operational war planning against China, it is matched both by the USA’s and Japan’s correspondingly huge increases in military spending.
Stars and Stripes reported on January 2 that the new US defense budget, signed by President Biden last month, included billions of dollars for new military infrastructure and strategic initiatives across the Pacific. The US Indo-Pacific Command already has around 375,000 military and civilian personnel operating across the region.
The command’s headquarters in Hawaii are getting $87.9 million for barracks; $103 million for the missile storage facility upgrade; $111 million for a company operations facility [et anlegg for operasjonelle virksomheter]and $29 million for a facility called the Army National Guard Readiness Center.
The US Navy alone is getting $32 billion for new warships and 36 F-35 fighter jets, each costing about $89 million. The funding also includes $621 million for two Virginia-class submarines SSN-774, which are expected to conduct operations in the Pacific Ocean, and will have their maintenance at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
To counter Chinese weapons systems, the army is upgrading artillery and missile systems, pursuing the development of new longer-range guns and hypersonic weapons, while modifying air- and sea-launched missiles, and army units’ launch of cruise missiles.
The Japanese government announced last month that from 2023 to 2027, it will double its military spending over the next five years, to about $80 billion, or 2 percent of the country’s GDP. The associated national defense documents explicitly identify China as “a peerless, and the greatest strategic challenge”.
The Japanese military will acquire a number of offensive weapons, including cruise missiles such as Lockheed Martin’s Tomahawk and the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). It also plans to upgrade its own Type 12 guided missiles that can be launched from the ground, ships or aircraft, to attack naval vessels, and to produce its own hypersonic guided missiles.
Japan will also increase its missile sites. They have already begun to militarize their southern islands immediately adjacent to Taiwan and off the Chinese mainland, including the Amami, Miyako, Ishigaki and Yonaguni Islands. Tokyo has already deployed, or intends to deploy, missiles and electronic warfare devices to these islands, as well as building depots for ammunition and fuel.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida embarked on a tour of Europe and North America on Sunday, focusing on strengthening military ties. He is visiting both Britain and Italy, which are joint partners in a deal agreed last month to build new advanced fighter jets. In the UK, he is expected to sign an agreement establishing the framework for mutual military visits.
Kishida’s last stop will be the United States where he will hold talks with Biden in the White House, where they will discuss military cooperation, Japan’s acquisition of American missiles and attempts to block China’s access to advanced semiconductor chips. As part of the US’s economic war against China, Biden has introduced a series of bans on the sale to China of advanced computer chips, or of the machinery required to develop and manufacture them. Japan’s defense and foreign ministers are due to hold a round of talks in Washington on Wednesday with their American counterparts.
At the same time, the US is in the process of carrying out a provocative official visit to Taiwan – an island which the US under the One China policy de facto recognizes as part of China, with Beijing as the legitimate government. Terry McCartin, the United States’ top US official in charge of trade with China, will arrive in Taipei on Saturday to lead a delegation that will include officials from other government agencies.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last August, which was sanctioned by the White House, provoked strong tensions and a dangerous show of force from both sides in the surrounding waters. Washington is deliberately pushing Beijing into a corner by strengthening its trade and military ties with Taipei, in order to force China to fire the first shot, in a war over Taiwan that the US has been preparing for in advance.
As Lieutenant General Bierman so bluntly explained: “When we stand there confronted [‘squared off’] with the Chinese adversary, who will then possess the starting gun and potentially have the ability to initiate hostilities. . we can identify crucial key terrain that must be held, secured, defended, exploited.”
