While the world is consumed with the COVID-19 pandemic, China continues to destabilize the Indo-Pacific region and try to reshape the international order so that it is more favorable to its authoritarian system and quest for regional dominance.
Key areas where Japan and other Indo-Pacific stakeholders are facing challenges include the East China and the South China seas. We are also seeing China actively striving to change the COVID-19 narrative to expand its influence globally.
Despite the apparent warming of Sino-Japanese relations and the global turbulence associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen 36 incursions of Chinese vessels identified within Japan’s contiguous zone, and four Chinese vessels identified within Japan’s territorial sea between April 1 and 11, according to the Japan Coast Guard.