Seoul, Korea
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The US and Japan will begin their two-week military exercise on Thursday, deploying missile systems that can hit mainland China. This has already been accused of Beijing of a threat to the safety and stability of the region.
The decisive dragon exercise kicked off less than 48 hours later with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses with Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Don Jun, through a video call he described in his first known talk as “frank and constructive.”
Additionally, US training will come more than a week after a massive Chinese military parade in Beijing. Meanwhile, the People’s Liberation Army showed off some of the latest missile systems, with leader Xi Jinping watching alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s UN Kim Jong.
The joint exercise will feature US Tita and Mmesis missiles and Japan’s Type 12 surface-to-surface missiles, according to a US Marine Corps press release.
Missile systems across different ranges provide a “layered” ability to “protect critical waterways, protect key terrain, and exert the power of the project from land.”
Beijing has already called for the deployment of Typhon, also known as the US Army’s midrange capabilities (MRC) system, as “a major threat to regional strategic safety.”
“The US and Japan should respect security concerns in other countries and should not bring in a ‘Taifen’ medium-range missile system,” Guo Zi-Kung, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said later last month.
The Typhon system is capable of launching standard missile 6 (SM-6) that can be used in ballistic missile defense, aircraft defense, and can also target sea vessels at a range of 370 kilometers (230 miles) according to the missile defense project of the Center for Strategic and International Research (CSIS).
It can also launch a Tomahawk land attack missile, a maneuverable cruise missile in a range of 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles), according to CSIS.
It was first deployed to the Pacific Ocean for exercises in the Philippines last year.
Typhon will take place at the Iwako Bureau of the Marine Corps Aviation Bureau on the western island of Japan’s main island, a Marine Corps statement said.
The release of the Marines did not say where other systems would be deployed, but said the movement would include Japan’s South West Island. The island spans within 70 miles (113 kilometers) of Taiwan’s coast, an autonomous island that the Chinese Communist Party has claimed to be unique and vowed to strengthen it if necessary.
The Nmesis system is a short-range missile of approximately 115 miles (185 km) that fires maritime skin missiles at naval targets.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Japan’s newly upgraded Type 12 missiles range up to 560 miles (900 km).
On Wednesday, Hegses told Don that the US is “not seeking conflict with China, it is pursuing a change of government and strangulation in China,” according to Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
“But at the same time, he was openly informed that the US would have important interest in the Asia-Pacific region, a priority theatre, and would firmly protect those interests,” Parnell added.
According to Chinese readings, Dong urged China to respect “core interests” and raised Taiwan and the South China Sea.
The call between the defense ministers comes as the US and China increase high levels of engagement as they anticipate a potential summit between XI and Trump this fall.
Trump and his top advisors are preparing to quietly travel to South Korea for a gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Trade Ministers in late October, three Trump administration officials told CNN. The summit is seen as an important opportunity for Trump to meet with XI.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke on the phone. The two last met in July on the sidelines at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Malaysia.
The Chinese reading said both sides considered the call “timely, needy, productive” and emphasized the need to “use more of headquarters diplomacy” to help the two countries manage differences and strengthen cooperation.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers will make an official trip to China later this month, marking its first trip in over six years.
