Following US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, China fired missiles into six areas surrounding Taiwan and sent fighter jets across the midline of the Taiwan Strait. Some of those missiles landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), threatening fishing boats from the island of Yonaguni, just 110 kilometres from Taiwan.
Although China's military exercises ended after several days, a new precedent has been set. China most likely will send more missiles and jets into the area surrounding Taiwan whenever it is displeased with the Taiwanese government or US actions towards the island.
This strategy of ratcheting up pressure on Taiwan is all too familiar to Japan. In 2010, a Chinese fishing boat entered Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands and intentionally rammed a Japanese coast guard vessel that had warned it to depart from the area.
