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China spy balloons show Japan, Taipei need to share intelligence on aerial threats: lawmaker
- Former defence minister Itsunori Onodera said one way that Tokyo could exchange information with Taiwan could be through the US
- His comments came after Japan said that it suspected Chinese spy balloons had flown over its airspace at least three times in the past
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The flight of suspected Chinese surveillance balloons has shown that Tokyo and Taiwan need to share “critical” intelligence about potential common aerial threats, a senior defence policymaker for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party said.
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“We don’t have those bilateral relations with Taiwan, so we don’t cooperate on that, but Japan’s government will have to consider what it does next,” Itsunori Onodera, a former defence minister and an influential lawmaker in the ruling party, said in an interview.
Japan’s islands are within 100km of Taiwan, so their aircraft and ships often operate in proximity.
Although Japan does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it worries that China would imperil Japanese national security if Beijing gained control over the self-governing island.
One way that Japan could share information with Taiwan could be through its close ally the United States, added Onodera, who said he had visited Taipei in January, where he was briefed about threats posed to the island by China.
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