Asia-Pacific has no more space for militarization: China Daily editorial

According to the online edition of Stars and Stripes, the US military is planning to establish a subordinate command in Japan for its Space Force as part of its efforts to enhance cooperation with allied countries in the domain of space.

The US Space Force and Japan's Air Self-Defense Force held their first-ever space domain discussions at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo in July, and activities in Japan have reportedly already begun with a small team.

The US Space Force established its first subordinate command in the Far East in the Republic of Korea in December at Osan Air Base, one month after it activated its "Indo-Pacific" Space Forces field command at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii.

The purpose of founding the Osan command was to coordinate "space operations and services such as missile warning, position navigation and timing, and satellite communications within the region", US Forces Korea said at the opening ceremony.

There has been no such beating around the bush in relation to the command post in Japan, which is aimed at strengthening cooperation between Japan and the US in response to China's "military use" of space and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missiles.

The news comes hard on the heels of the US-Japan-ROK summit at Camp David on Aug 18, in which the leaders of the three countries agreed to "enhance trilateral dialogue on space security cooperation".

The provocative and aggressive nature of these moves is self-evident. The command post of the US Space Force in Japan will not only provide the necessary infrastructure for the US to upgrade its combat capacity to a new level in the region, but also give Japan easy access to align its Self-Defense Forces with the cutting-edge front of space warfare in a short time.

This represents a further expansion of the US' military alliance network into the space domain and another move by the US to accelerate its militarization of the Asia-Pacific.

Over the past one year, it has agreed to build nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, opened several new military bases in the Philippines and provided large amounts of weapons to its regional allies.

While China is making utmost efforts to stabilize the situation in the region and maintain peace and stability through talks and consultations, the US has never stopped pouring oil on fire on various regional issues by sowing the seeds of discord, cultivating proxies and muddying the waters to hijack the security and development of the region.

The latest move shows the US is continuing its efforts to ramp up the arms race in the region.