US to deploy upgraded Marine unit on Japan's Okinawa: Defense sec.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says Washington will deploy a new missile-armed mobile Marine unit across Japan's southern island of Okinawa, as Washington and Tokyo step up military cooperation meant to deter China.

During a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at the US State Department on Wednesday, Austin said that the new Marine Corps unit, to be called the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, would also be equipped with advanced intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities.

"These actions will bolster deterrence in the region and allow us to defend Japan and its people more effectively in an increasingly challenging security environment," Austin said, calling the revamped unit "more versatile, mobile and resilient."

The announcement came just two days prior to a scheduled meeting between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House.

At the presser, where Japanese Defense Minster Yasukazu Hamada was also present, Austin said that the number of American troops in Japan — roughly 56,000 active-duty service members — would not change as the new unit would be replacing the so-called 12th Artillery Regiment.

The deployment is expected to be completed by 2025, he said.

Okinawa inundated with US military bases

Many Japanese people, particularly Okinawans, are against the continued heavy American military presence and are protesting to draw attention to the issue.

Japan and the US want to reinforce the islands separating the East China Sea from the Western Pacific because they are close to Chinese Taipei and form part of what military planners refer to as the "First Island Chain," which is the first chain of major Pacific archipelagos out from the East Asian continental mainland extending down to Indonesia that hems in China's forces.

Blinken, for his part, said at the presser that the change was also essential to deter China from a possible invasion of Chinese Taipei.

"What we've seen from China in recent years is… an effort to undermine the longstanding status quo that's maintained peace and stability for decades," he said.

China has sovereignty over Chinese Taipei, and under the "one China" policy, virtually all world countries recognize that sovereignty, meaning they would not establish direct diplomatic contact with the self-proclaimed government in Taipei. This is while Chinese Taipei's secessionist president Tsai Ing-wen has independence aspirations and views the island as a sovereign state.

The US, though professing adherence to the principle, has long courted Taipei and sells weapons to the self-governed island in an attempted affront to China. Beijing has said that it seeks peaceful reunification with Taipei, but may use force if necessary.

Tokyo fears that the reunification would threaten shipping lanes through which its oil is supplied and would undermine US influence in the region.

Japanese hold sit-in Okinawa, try to obstruct construction of US base

Japanese protesters have staged a sit-in trying to obstruct the construction of a new American base on the southern island of Okinawa.

The US began its military presence on Okinawa during World War Two. Currently, there are 18,000 US Marines in Japan, the biggest concentration outside the US. Most of them are stationed on Okinawa.

American bases cover around eight percent of the main Okinawa island, stirring resentment among locals, who want other parts of Japan to host the troops.

Dispersing marine units across Okinawa, even if only temporarily, means that American troops are going back to islands along the chain for the first time since the US returned Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972.

Japan is also locked in a territorial dispute with Beijing over an uninhabited yet strategically-important island group in the East China Sea.

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