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Japan's expansion of defence ties signals alarm over China-Taiwan flashpoint
Staving off military conflict and threat to Asia's security order the main goal, say experts
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Japanese and American navy vessels passing through the western Pacific Ocean in 2017 as part of a military exercise. Japan has been instrumental in corralling friendly nations to deploy warships to the Indo-Pacific, and just last week held its first joint air force exercises with the Philippines.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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Japan is a prominent player in the strategic calculus of the two great powers, the United States and China, with Tokyo effectively acting as Washington's lieutenant in the region as a fellow democracy and security ally.
This is against the flashpoint of Taiwan. The Economist magazine in April described the island as the "most dangerous place on earth". A month later, panellists told a Nikkei forum that the Taiwan Strait posed the gravest threat to regional security.
