China has criticised the US Space Force’s decision to establish a permanent unit, called US Space Forces Japan, at the Yokota Air Base outside Tokyo. Chinese state media says the new unit “represents continued efforts by Washington to project military power abroad.”
US Space Forces Japan was activated on December 4. The small unit will operate out of Yokota in western Tokyo. It will have a staff of about 10 and be subordinate to US Forces Japan. The unit’s establishment is part of a larger US push to increase collaboration with allies in the space domain.
Brigadier General Anthony Mastalir, head of the Hawaii-based US Space Forces Indo-Pacific, said the new unit’s activation marked “a pivotal moment in space operations within the Indo-Pacific region.”
“Space is becoming increasingly congested, contested and critical to national security,” Mastalir said at a media conference. “This activation is a critical step in enhancing the integration and coordination of space capabilities with Japan.”
The US Space Force comprises 14,00 combatants. It organises, trains and equips personnel in order to protect US and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force.
Japanese outlets covering the unit’s activation say its presence outside Tokyo will deter China, Russia, and North Korea. They say it will also assist in the coordinated response to space developments in those nations.
“Both the U.S. and Japan use space to project power. Likewise, our adversaries in this region are using space more than ever to project power,” Mastalir told local media.
China says US is a Asia Pacific menace
But the Global Times, a state-controlled Chinese outlet, said the new unit cemented the US’s role as a “menace” in the Asia Pacific region. The newspaper accused the US of exercising control over Japan, including “unwarranted influence over Japan’s economic and foreign policies.”
“Japan in particular, is depicted by Washington as being on the forefront of America’s own growing confrontation with China. In reality, Japan is given little choice.”
The newspaper then slaps down the Space Force Japan as “more administrative than an advancement in US space-based capabilities themselves.”
But Mastalir says China is using its satellites to “find, fix, track and target” terrestrial US and allied assets. He said the country was establishing a “long-range kill chain.”
“What we have seen over the last five to ten years is increased investment in China regarding military space capabilities,” he said. US Space Force Japan was “absolutely critical to our continued deterrence in the region and our ability, if necessary, to transition from competition into crisis or conflict.”
US Space Force Japan’s day-to-day duties will include coordinating with its Japanese peer, the Air Self-Defense Force. “The key will be to integrate at the component level,” Mastalir said. “Integrated planning for both exercises and for real world operational planning is absolutely critical.”
But China says the US does not need a “global-spanning network” to build its space capabilities. “The US is expanding its Space Force components simply to facilitate operations of America’s military spread across the planet, not to expand its actual capabilities in space,” the Global Times says.
