Recently, Japan has jumped higher on Taiwan related issues. On some bilateral and multilateral occasions, Japan openly talked about "preparing for military conflicts in the Taiwan Strait" and "maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait is of great importance to Japan".

The former is to deploy anti-ship missiles and surface to air missiles on an island only more than 200 kilometers away from Taiwan. The latter is to announce the first arms sales to Taiwan since the Biden government took office.

In contrast, Japan's decision and future actions are more harmful. We urgently need to pay attention to the possibility of Japan taking risks.

Ishigaki Island is the southernmost island in the Ryukyu Archipelago. It is only more than 200 kilometers away from Taiwan Island and only 170 kilometers away from Diaoyu Island.

Therefore, from a geopolitical point of view, the military importance of the island is self-evident.

Japanese defense ministry officials disclosed to the media that the size of the troops deployed on Ishigaki Island is expected to be 500 to 600, roughly divided into two forces. One of the troops will be equipped with shore to ship missiles and surface to air missiles, and the other is a police force that can respond to "armed raids" and large-scale natural disasters at the first time.

Japanese defense minister Nobuo Kishi said that the specific time for the deployment of missile forces on Ishigaki Island has not been finalized, but the defense provincial capital is working towards the goal of completing the deployment by the end of 2022.

In addition, kishifu said that the feasibility study on increasing the deployment of electronic warfare troops on honaguo island near Ishigaki Island is also being carried out as part of the national defense budget for 2023.

In April this year, kishifu inspected the self defense forces deployed on the island of honaguo. At that time, he said that standing on the island of honaguo, he could see the coastline of Taiwan Island in the distance. It can be seen how close this island is to Taiwan Island.

Ishigaki Island, more than 2000 kilometers away from Tokyo, received general attention before. However, in September of that year, a conservative think tank in the United States published a sensational report, claiming that Ishigaki Island might become "the leading island for China to seize the whole Ryukyu Islands".

Geographically, Ishigaki Island is located in the south of the bachongshan islands of the Ryukyu Islands, covering an area of 222.6 square kilometers. It is the third largest island in Okinawa county and the political, economic and transportation center of the bachongshan islands.

Because Ishigaki Island is closer to Taiwan than Japan, it is only more than 200 kilometers away from Taiwan Island. Therefore, on Shiyuan Island, Taiwan's television and radio, and even the radio signals of Fujian Province, China, can be clearly received here.

On August 4, the U.S. State Department announced its decision to approve the sale of 40 155 mm m109a6 "medium self-propelled howitzer systems" and related equipment to Taiwan, as well as nearly 1700 sets of equipment to convert shells into more accurate GPS Guided Ammunition, valued at $750 million.

The defense security cooperation agency has notified Congress of the possible arms sale. The notice also mentioned that "the proposed sale of m109a6 self-propelled howitzer system will improve the modernization of the recipient's self-propelled howitzer forces and strengthen the ability to resist current and future threats".

A military expert told us that the Biden administration had approved the first arms sales to Taiwan, which showed that Biden continued the trump administration's policy of "containing China".

On the one hand, we want to prove through arms sales to Taiwan that "we will continue to be tough with China and will not abandon Taiwan". After all, now the Democratic Party attaches great importance to the mid-term elections. If the Biden administration does not engage in arms sales to Taiwan, the Republican Party will make an issue of this, which will have an adverse impact on the Democratic Party's mid-term elections.

On the other hand, it wants to support and cheer up the DPP and some forces in Taiwan. The Biden administration has also been shouting that Taiwan should strengthen its self-defense capability, and one of the main ways to strengthen its self-defense capability is to buy American weapons, while Washington earns a lot of money.