Maritime Security Issues in Asia and Japan’s Security Policy

Ten years ago in 2012, China claimed that it was forced to “regularize” its Coast Guard’s patrol surrounding the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands because the Japanese government purchased three of the features from a private owner. This year in 2022, China again announced to “regularize” its military activities beyond the median line of the Taiwan Strait as its sovereignty was allegedly challenged by the island visit paid by Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. Speaker of the House. By making whatever excuses, Chinese aggressive behaviors over the East Asian waters have been transforming the security environment of the Indo-Pacific at a rapid speed. Then, what does China want to achieve in the end? How far is it going? This talk analyzed a historical trend of China’s domestic administration system regarding the sea. Secondly, it focused on the new developments led by Xi Jinping, topped by the construction of the Spatial Infrastructure that utilizes its satellite network and extends also to the undersea. At the end, it called for attention to the new application technologies China has been inventing, partially to win the hearts of the Global South with economic benefits, but more importantly to improve its own Maritime Domain Awareness worldwide. Following the presentation by Dr. Masuo, and the panelists discussed ways in which Japan’s security policy should be aligned with the drastic changes in maritime security in Asia, based on the fact that Prime Minister KISHIDA announced in his first policy speech in December 2021 that he would draw up a new national security strategy in a year.

Speaker bios:  

Chisako T. MASUO (益尾知佐子) is a Professor at the Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University and an Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). She has won the Nakasone Yasuhiro Award of Excellence in 2021 by her contribution to China studies and to the policy discussions regarding China’s Coast Guard Law. She received Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 2008. Her research topics include Chinese domestic politics, foreign and maritime policies, and international relations with regards to China. Professor Masuo was a visiting scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and China Foreign Affairs University in 2019, and a coordinate research scholar working with late Professor Ezra F. Vogel at the Harvard-Yenching Institute in 2014-2015. She is the author of China’s Behavioural Principles: International Relations Determined by the Domestic Currents (Tokyo: Chuko Publishing, 2019), as well as China Looks Back: Mao’s Legacy in the Open-Door Era (University of Tokyo Press, 2010), and a co-author of A Diplomatic History of China (University of Tokyo Press, 2017) all in Japanese. She also writes articles and book chapters in English and Chinese.

Jonathan Berkshire Miller is currently a senior fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). Miller is also Director and Senior fellow of the Indo-Pacific program at the Ottawa-based Macdonald Laurier Institute, Senior Fellow on East Asia for the Tokyo-based Asian Forum Japan and the Director and co-founder of the Council on International Policy. He also holds appointments as Canada’s ASEAN Regional Forum Expert and Eminent Person (EEP). Previously, he was an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, based in Tokyo. Other former appointments and roles include terms as a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, and Senior Fellow on East Asia for the New York-based EastWest Institute. In addition, Miller previously spent nearly a decade working on economic and security issues related to Asia with the Canadian federal government and worked both with the foreign ministry and the security community.

Eric Heginbotham is a principal research scientist at MIT’s Center for International Studies and a specialist in Asian security issues. Before joining MIT, he was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where he led research projects on China, Japan, and regional security issues and regularly briefed senior military, intelligence, and political leaders. Prior to that he was a Senior Fellow of Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. After graduating from Swarthmore College, Heginbotham earned his PhD in political science from MIT. He is fluent in Chinese and Japanese, and was a captain in the US Army Reserve. Heginbotham was the lead author of the recently released RAND US-China Military Scorecard, and a forthcoming RAND study on China’s Evolving Nuclear Deterrent. He is the coauthor (with George Gilboy) of Chinese and Indian Strategic Behavior: Growing Power and Alarm, published by Cambridge University Press in 2012, and is an editor of China in the Developing World, published by M.E. Sharpe. Heginbotham has published numerous articles in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Washington Quarterly, Current History, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a study of Japanese military options for the 21st century.