Japan has been the dominant economic power in the Indo-Pacific through the end of the Cold War and well beyond.

China has risen up to dominate that space.

And during that time, we've seen China build up maritime naval capabilities, military capabilities in a way that ultimately has left Japan feeling vulnerable at the end of very narrow supply chains.

If you look at the maritime shipping routes through the South and East China Sea, they all move past Taiwan.

As a matter of fact, lots of them move right through the Taiwan Strait.

And if not through the Taiwan Strait, at least they're moving through the Philippine Sea in between Taiwan and the Philippines.