Taiwan and Japan Track China Warship Together in Apparent Team-up at Sea

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Senior defense officials in Taiwan were coy about the country's military collaboration with Japan when quizzed on Monday about satellite imagery showing an apparent joint surveillance operation of a Chinese warship in the East China Sea.

Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters that Taiwan was cooperating with a number of friendly parties but said he could not disclose information about specific departments.

On Saturday, Japan's Defense Ministry said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) frigate Binzhou had passed through the Miyako Strait into the Western Pacific the day before. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force later deployed an Abukuma-class destroyer escort and two maritime patrol aircraft as the single Chinese warship traveled north via the narrow waters between Taiwan and Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost inhabited island, which lies less than 70 miles from Taiwan's east coast.

Satellite images dated May 1, however, revealed an additional detail not present in the announcement by the Japanese Defense Ministry—a Taiwanese warship also appeared to be in the vicinity, seemingly monitoring Binzhou as it returned to the East China Sea.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/taiwan-and-japan-track-china-warship-together-in-apparent-team-up-at-sea/ar-BB1gla19

[Irish_Dem]

1. Asian geopolitics are shifting rapidly.

And leading to an inevitable conclusion.

[soryang]

2. Planet labs

This looks like a bargain basement operation for Taiwan.

Sure they and some in Japan would like to convince people they can run with the Chinese PLAN, but the truth is, the increasing deployments of Chinese warships and aircraft around Taiwan and the western Pacific is exhausting for the military resources of the two smaller defense establishments. Taiwan would like to get anyone else on board. There are reasons why the Japanese don't want to commit openly anymore than they have to. There are potential commercial costs to them. As the former colonial occupier of Taiwan, the optics aren't too good either.

I noticed that aircraftspots on twitter hasn't posted much lately. I don't see anything there in more than a week.