March 29, 2025 (EIRNS)—Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 26, Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on the Chinese military, said that if the U.S. were to intervene in a contingency in the Taiwan Strait, the northern Philippines and southwest Japan will be the only areas that the U.S. military has access to that area in combat radius of the self-governing island.
Mastro, who advised the Trump administration transition team and also serves in the U.S. Air Force Reserve as the deputy director of reserve global China strategy, was asked by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), which countries the U.S. could depend on if a “shooting war” over Taiwan were to erupt. While the U.S. has access to nine Philippine bases under an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, Mastro said, it is not investing in the type of air and naval capabilities needed to be able to respond in a timely manner.
Therefore, as of now, the focus should be on Japan, Mastro added. The U.S. “needs greater access to its southwestern island chain, and a political guarantee or clearer assurances on U.S. base access in a Taiwan contingency,” she said in prepared remarks submitted to the hearing.
The Southwest Islands are a chain of islands that stretches from Kyushu to Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost island that sits about 110 km from Taiwan. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been establishing garrisons in the islands of Yonaguni, Miyako and Ishigaki in recent years.