Japan: Must Counter China With 'Overall National Strength' | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, Japan's new defense report delivering a blunt warning meeting China's growing military challenge with the nation's overall national strength. No nation will be allowed to dominate the Indo-Pacific region. That's the warning from the head of U.S. Pacific Command to China. China is expanding fast in the Pacific. How new technology is giving the U.S. Army a lethal edge in the region. And phasing out Chinese-made products as the U.S. tightens restrictions on Chinese-made robots. One India-based company says it has already been reducing its reliance on China. Japan is taking a harder security stance in the Indo-Pacific. Officials say China's expanding military activity is now the country's biggest security challenge. A new defense report stated that Japan must respond with overall national strength, including stronger defenses and closer cooperation with allies. In Japan's annual defense white paper released Tuesday, it said the regional security environment has become increasingly unstable since 2022. It points to China's military buildup, North Korea's weapons programs, and closer ties between those countries and Russia. Beijing has been expanding military operations around Japan and raising the risk of The report cites recent incidents involving Chinese aircraft carriers and military aircraft near Japan and cautions that any miscalculation could quickly lead to a larger conflict. The report also raises concerns over Taiwan. It says China could use so-called gray zone tactics, including Coast Guard vessels, to pressure or blockade the island. Japanese officials say the country will continue strengthening partnerships with allies across the Indo-Pacific. They also emphasize that the country's military remains focused on self-defense and regional stability. The head of U.S. Pacific Command is warning that no nation will be allowed to dominate the Indo-Pacific region. Admiral Samuel Paparo made the remarks remotely at a regional security conference in Malaysia on Monday. He says some actors are using what he called false claims of legitimacy to justify intimidation and coercion. Paparo said the U.S. is deterring China through strength, not confrontation. His comments come as tensions remain high in the South China Sea, where China's maritime claims overlap with those of several Southeast Asian nations. The Philippines has accused Beijing of water cannon attacks and dangerous maneuvers near disputed waters, charges China rejects. Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said China is everywhere. This is a matter of concern. As China's military footprint in the Indo-Pacific keeps growing, especially near Taiwan, the U.S. Army is undergoing a major high-tech transformation. Top U.S. defense officials say land power backed by artificial intelligence and high-tech supply chains is the key to deterring Chinese aggression. Here's more. The Pacific is mostly ocean and sky, so why does the Army matter here? Undersecretary of the U.S. Army Michael Obadow views its strategic role in the region as the foundation of the joint force. It serves as the primary enabler that allows the Air Force and Navy to exercise dominance in their respective domains. The one thing that remains a constant is conflict is inherently a human exercise, and at the core of it, it takes a human, a Marine or a soldier with a rifle or an outstretched hand and aid or anything else that's required for that mission to interact with humans. And so, to me, that fundamentally will not change, and so that influences the land domain. At a recent CSIS defense panel, Obadow says drones are now an important part of how soldiers fight, but he's pushing back on the idea that they're replacing everything else. Was the tank somewhat irrelevant? China doesn't think so, and if you put it into perspective, China could move 100 tanks anywhere in the Pacific theater before we can manufacture 10. They could move 1,000 tanks probably anywhere in the world before we can manufacture another 100. So China believes in tanks. Russia believes in tanks. Former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy says the lesson from Ukraine isn't drones over everything. It's that militaries need both. And when you talk about Ukraine, they still request Bradleys and tanks, and they want fighter planes. Drones are really important, and it's going to be central to formations, but you're still going to need a lot of the other equipment. In other words, it's not drones instead of tanks. It's drones plus firepower, and that combination is what's needed to counter China's strategy of trying to keep U.S. forces out of the Pacific. Military experts are watching the critical window between 2027 and 2035, a time frame identified as high risk for potential Chinese action against Taiwan. If China tries to wall off the region with missiles and radar, the Army wants ground-based weapons and defense systems ready to punch through. And it's not just weapons. It's so-called contested logistics. Contested logistics to me really means two things. One is your lines of communication are severed, or they're severely degraded to the point that you are almost wholly reliant on what you have forward. The second is it's not, I would say it's logistics at the edge. To maintain military readiness, the U.S. is pre-positioning stockpiles across allied island chains and deploying 3D printers directly to the front lines to manufacture critical parts on demand. As competition with Beijing intensifies, the practice is giving Washington a direct line of trust with allies. A new contender in the robotics race, one India-based robotics company, says it has already built machines with a supply chain that relies very little, or not at all, on China. The FCC recently restricted imports of certain Chinese-made humanoid robots and advanced robotics equipment over national security concerns. That decision could create an opening for companies like Adi Robotics, which says many of its robots use fewer Chinese parts than competitors. The company's founder spoke with Wired about how the company built a more resilient supply chain by developing much of its own hardware. Adi's 10,000-pound Tugger robot is nearly China-free, while its pallet mover uses less than 5 percent of Chinese components. The company says some parts can still be sourced from China, but know that they can still get replacement parts in countries like Japan, South Korea, Germany and Taiwan, even if they cost more. Adi currently operates hundreds of robots in warehouses and factories, and is preparing to launch its first humanoid robot later this year. It's also setting up a facility near Detroit to eventually assemble its robots in the U.S. The company says its approach shows robots can still compete on performance and price, while reducing reliance on Chinese suppliers. A group of international lawmakers is pushing back against a new Chinese law they say threatens people beyond China's borders. The executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, known as IPAC, delivered a formal statement to Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-de. IPAC is proud to comprise members who are leading the charge worldwide against transnational repression. This statement, negotiated by our network, expresses our rock-solid opposition to transnational repression, and especially the deeply troubling new ethnic unity law. We present it today as a symbol of our common struggle against authoritarian oppression and in solidarity with the Taiwanese people. Taiwanese President Lai echoed that sentiment, calling on the international community to oppose what he described as China's red terror. The Chinese law in question has drawn widespread criticism. Opponents say its provisions enable Beijing to target ethnic Chinese people living abroad, including those in Taiwan. IPAC is comprised of more than 290 lawmakers from dozens of democratic nations. The alliance was established in 2020 out of a growing consensus that the Chinese Communist Party is becoming more authoritarian within China and increasingly assertive abroad. Turning to the Middle East, talks between the U.S. and Iran are on and off. Meanwhile, China's ties to Iran remain under the spotlight. To discuss the latest developments, NTD's Steve Lance speaks with Stefano Rittendell, Chief Intelligence Officer at Artorias and an Army veteran. Now, Stefano, China has reverse-engineered U.S. rifles, provided Iran the ability to manufacture them, among other things. How does the United States strategy towards Iran have to be sort of strategically aware of China's role in supporting the regime, also with dual-use components to support their missile manufacturing? That's right. I mean, I think one of the key aspects of the Iranian ballistic missile program is wholeheartedly dependent on China. They've been one of the key conduits. Obviously, we saw that report that China is going to sell manpads or short-range air defense systems to Iran to really target the United States and their ability there. And then obviously, the Chinese, outside of just the military component, have always been one of the key economic backers of Iran. And I think the Achilles heels of Iran right now is their economy. And the naval blockade that the United States has imposed, the sanctions that are there that's really caused the Iranian economy to stand at a halt, China's trying and is the most likely culprit to provide that lifeline to the Iranian regime. And I think the United States is going to be wise to look at the Chinese angle to try to see where and how they might support the Iranians. Now, it's also important to note that the Chinese are exposed in a lot of these sanctions, and they also don't want to necessarily run into a lot of these sanctions that the U.S. has imposed against Iran. And so they're going to be very cautious. And we know that China might take a step back if the United States takes a much more aggressive approach. It's important to note that in the naval blockade that the United States has announced against Iran, we haven't seen any attempts by any vessels, either even remotely associated with the Chinese government or Chinese businesses, try to run the blockade. So it does show that when the United States takes a forceful approach, it is effective in denying the Iranians their economic and military lifeline. The U.S. boosting ties with Latin America. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Paraguay's vice president at the State Department on Tuesday. There, they signed an agreement on nuclear cooperation. We've always had a strong connection between the United States and Paraguay. Those links have only grown stronger. And agreements like this and others that I hope will happen in the future will begin to create real concrete progress, institutionalize the deep tie between our two countries moving forward so that they're not just deprived of one administration or one era, but they becoming their own and can survive the shifts and political winds that happen in democracies from time to time. The agreement is part of a broader U.S. effort to strengthen alliances across Latin America and limit the influence of China and Russia in the region. Coming up, Taiwan under attack with millions of cyber attacks every day. But a lawmaker says the bigger threat is Beijing's relentless disinformation campaign. He breaks down Taiwan's three-step strategy for fighting Beijing's psychological warfare and describes what daily life is like for his own family. Every day when we have our breakfast in the morning, we can hear the thunder-like noise, the engine start, the air fighters. Even my son, when he was two, three years old, he would say, oh, PLA come to harass again. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Taiwan faces millions of cyber attacks and hacking attempts every day, along with a relentless wave of disinformation from Beijing. Few people understand that threat better than Taiwanese lawmaker Wang Tingyu, a member of the legislature's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. He's been sanctioned by Beijing three times and repeatedly threatened for speaking out. On American Thought Leaders, he explains Taiwan's three-step strategy for countering the Chinese Communist Party's psychological warfare and why he believes public trust is just as important as military strength. You've been repeatedly the chair of the Taiwan's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. And you've watched Beijing apply pressure from many different angles onto your country—military exercises, cognitive warfare, diplomatic isolation, economic coercion. You've talked about all these things. Among these methods, what do you think is the most dangerous? I always use the example of my family. When my son, when he was three years old, now he is 24. Every day when we have our breakfast in the morning, we can hear the thunder-like noise, the engine start, the air fighters. Even my son, when he was two, three years old, he would say, oh, PLA come to harass again. We are under this kind of threat for decades. It's our daily life. So what is the most dangerous threat? Air fighters, destroyers, missiles, drones, those kind of military, of course, is real and very not disturbing. However, those disinformation from inside, our psychological defense line is the most important thing. Those autocracy, communism, they're always using fake news, disinformation, those twisted news polluted by their intention to penetrate your society. Make your younger generation through those TikToks, something like that, through some kind of social media to try to divide your society. Sometimes we just support different parties. But through those disinformation, people don't trust your government. That kind of disinformation sabotage this society, divide your society into pieces. I think it's the most dangerous thing caused by China communists. I think probably Americans and Canadians, which is I am Canadian, could learn a lot from this. Democracy, our society is an open society. We value freedom of speech. We value diversification. That's our advantage. But sometimes those autocracies, such as Iran, China, North Korea, they control all the concepts, control all the speech, control all the rights. So when they try to influence your society, Canada or United States or Taiwan, we are democracy. People's votes are going to influence your policy-making process. So try to influence your cognition. Then you can influence your behavior to vote. So they try to influence your awareness. They become racism, become these colored people hate white people. Democrats hate Republicans in Taiwan. In the past, it's just you support different parties. No big deal. We are friends. We are families. We are neighbors. But now we hate each other. So how to make your people realize what is right, what is wrong? It's the most challenging situation to the democracy society. So what you're talking about is an education for people to be able to have critical thinking and be able to understand the value of different kinds of information. Yeah. Now technology improved a lot. Deepfake, through AI. Yeah, I can even create your image, your voice to speak the most terrible words you cannot imagine through technology. So how to distinguish is real. I think it's quite important, not only to our generation, this adult, our next generation. And a lot of fraud happened by this kind of information. A lot of countries on the street become a chaos, try to attack each other because of this kind of information. So if millions of people think it's true, but actually it's false, that will be a problem. In Taiwan, during COVID-19, our former prime minister, Su Tzeng-chang, he built a SOP. We call it three steps. First, once this information occurred, those ministries related to this information, you have to respond to it within 60 minutes. If you're slower than 60 minutes, this disinformation spreads around, the damage happens. If one disinformation occurred, ministry, administration need to respond to it within 60 minutes. Second, the response, try to provide correct information, must be humorous, must be fun. Because our research, our study shows, to spread the information, if it's funny, that goes faster. So, and the third thing, you need to locate the origin, where the disinformation, the very first moment occurred. Before that, we need to verify what is disinformation we need to deal with. That's the key. First, this disinformation must be fake. The second one, it must damage public interest. Third, must be intentional. Then we go through this SOP procedure. So, during COVID-19, there is a disinformation occurred almost at the same time in Japan, in the United States, and in Taiwan. They say the toilet paper ran out in a convenience store. So, people watch this information come, they rush in, go to the supermarket, try to grab as much as possible of the toilet paper. It's disinformation, damage public interest. And this information comes from China. So, my government do the response. They draw a picture, a photo, showing a cartoon person, and lean on the window, showing the buttocks, say, how many buttocks you have. You don't need that much toilet paper. And this picture is very funny. So, spread three times faster than disinformation, then ease this tension. Then look at the original information comes from China. To watch the full interview with Wang Ting-yu, a member of Taiwan's Legislative Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, please check out the American Thought Leaders program on Epic TV, or click the link down below if you're watching online. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on the show, or have something you'd like to see us cover, send us an email at chinainfocusatntd.com. We'd love to hear from you. For on-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com, or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.