Japan warned of the growing threat posed by Chinese and Russian collaboration and said it was necessary to “wake up” to Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and protect the island “as a democratic country.”

State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama said the fate of Taiwan and Okinawa are key to stemming the military influence of China and Russia in the Western Pacific.

“We are family with Taiwan,” said Yasuhide Nakayama, Japan’s state minister of defence to the Hudson Institute online forum.

Its security “is clearly related to Okinawa’s protection,” part of Japan.

Okinawa is home to concentrations of Japan Air and Maritime Self-Defense Forces and American Air Force, Marine Corps and naval support facilities, as well as service members’ families.

Okinawa and Taiwan are “kind of like nose and eyes, really close,” he said.

Nakayama revealed that China recently sent 28 fighters across the Taiwanese straits, with some flying into Taiwanese air space to intimidate Taipei. He added Chinese president Xi Jinping is also trying to leave the Taiwanese with an impression that they are surrounded, by sending ships, including an aircraft carrier, fighter aircraft and bombers on patrols and exercises east of Taiwan.

Some of these exercises are conducted with the Russians, “giving lots of threats to Taiwan.”

“We have to show deterrence to China and Russia,” not just defence, as they act more aggressively in the Indo-Pacific, he said. They have ramped up joint military exercises in the region to make their forces more interoperable.

As steps to improve deterrence, Nakayama said Tokyo “is thinking about stand-off capabilities” for the future and launching new satellite constellations to detect hypersonic cruise missiles that Beijing and Moscow have newly developed.

He also revealed that Tokyo is continuing to buy aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and other technologies from Washington, D.C and says both countries should have continual exercises so individual service members have a better understanding of how their allies think and operate.

He then called on the United States to look at Japan’s technical capabilities for security, like “space debris clean-up” to protect satellite constellations.

Nakayama said future generations in Japan and the United States may question their nations’ decision to accept a “One China” policy in the early 1970s that linked mainland China and Taiwan together as one country.

“Democratic countries have to protect democratic countries and allies” against “the autocrats,” China and Russia, he said.

Nakayama said the security domains ranged from air, sea, land, cyber and space to include electronic warfare.

Several times during the discussion Nakayama mentioned how close the United States and Japan have become since the attack on Pearl Harbor and the ending of World War II in the Pacific, with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Now it’s the most strong alliance; any other cannot compare,” he said.

But what is “happening around Japan” should “be a very big matter for the U.S., Europe and allies. Looking at China alone, Nakayama noted its increased investments in ballistic missile submarines and the concurrent development of the JL-3 sea-launched ballistic missile that is capable of striking the continental United States. “This is a big, big threat not just for us,” but the United States and Europe, he said referring both to the longer-range sub-launched missiles and China’s building of artificial islands.

As this is occurring, “the Russian are exercising [naval forces] right off [the] western front of Honolulu” and exercising with China in land and air manoeuvre near their shared borders, Nakayama added.

Oby Ezekwesili had stated that Africa must be “accorded damages and liability compensation from China, the rich and powerful country that failed to transparently and effectively manage this global catastrophe”.

The press secretary of the Chinese embassy in Nigeria, Sun Saixiong who reacted to Oby Ezekwesili’s demand stated that it makes no sense at all.

Siaxiong who wondered why no one demanded for compensations for the 2009 H1N1 flu which killed nearly 200,000 people after being first diagnosed in the US, stated that Coronavirus is a common enemy to all mankind and may strike anytime, anywhere.

The statement published on The Guardian reads;
It is noticed that The Guardian reported (April 18th) the Op-ed by Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, China Must Pay Reparations to Africa for its Coronavirus Failures, first published on The Washington Post, April 16th edition.
The remarks of Mrs. Ezekwesili in the Op-ed make no sense at all.
We must know that, since the outbreak of COVID-19, in an open, transparent and responsible spirit, China has taken the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough measures to contain its spread and conduct international cooperation. In this process, China has made tremendous sacrifices, accumulated valuable experience, and made significant contributions to the global response. The international community bears witness to and applauds China’s efforts and progress.
The virus is a common enemy to all mankind and may strike anytime, anywhere. Like other countries, China is also a victim, not a perpetrator, even less an accomplice of COVID-19.
In the face of major public health crises and infectious diseases, the international community should stand in solidarity and work together, not resort to mutual accusation or demand retribution and accountability. As we recall, there has never been any precedence of the latter.
Did anyone ask the US to offer compensations for the 2009 H1N1 flu, which was first diagnosed before breaking out on a large scale in the US and then spread to 214 countries and regions, killing nearly 200,000 people? AIDS was first reported in the US in the 1980s and then swept across the world, including Africa, causing untold sufferings to countless victims. And we don’t remember Mrs. Ezekwesili coming forward to ask the US to be held accountable? The financial turmoil in the US triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 turned into a global financial crisis. Did anyone ask the US to take the consequences?
We must understand that our enemy is the virus, not China. The international community can only defeat the virus by pulling together. Attacking and discrediting others will not save time and lives lost. We hope that Mrs. Ezekwesili will respect facts, science, and international consensus, stop letting herself dance to other’s tune, stop attacking and blaming China for nothing, and stop making irresponsible remarks.

However,  Nigeria has decided to screen visitors entering the country from  China (where the disease originated last year), Japan, Iran, Italy, Germany, France,  South  Korea and Spain.

InsideOjodu recalled that the killer disease was brought to Nigeria by an Italian man who arrived in Lagos aboard a Turkish Airlines plane on February 24.

He travelled from  Lagos to Ogun State before he was quarantined in the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

There have been other cases of the virus, but they proved negative.

The Minister of  State for Health, Dr Olorunnibe Mamora, while addressing a press conference in Abuja on Monday,  said the FG  decided to screen visitors from the eight countries after the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus outbreak a  pandemic.

“We have carried out a review of our case definition. We have added three new countries to the existing list of five high-risk countries with widespread community transmission. These are France, Germany and Spain. Therefore, eight countries are on our priority list – China, Japan, Iran, Italy, Republic of Korea, France and Germany.

“Travellers from these eight countries will undertake secondary screening at the point of entry. They are also advised to self-isolate for 14 days on entry,” he said.

He said between  January 7 and March 15  48 people who had contact with the Italian were screened for coronavirus in Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Yobe, Rivers, Kano, Enugu states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Mamora added, “Forty-seven people have tested negative and have been cleared. One was positive (after contact with the index case) and one result is pending. There has been no death.

“The index case is clinically stable and has improved greatly.”

Geng Shuang, foreign Ministry spokesman said that Beijing totally condemned the protesters who broke through the glass and steel barriers and went into the building where they unlawfully vandalized it.

He said that the Chinese government supports Hong Kong’s government and its police force in dealing with the incident in accordance with law.

“The violent attacks … are serious illegal acts that trample on the rule of law and endanger social order. We strongly condemn it,” Geng said.

A group of protesters broke through a window and stormed into Hong Kong’s legislative building amid another episode of mass demonstrations in the city, where a commemoration of the 22nd anniversary of the orderly return to Chinese rule was taken over by tumultuous scenes of utter civil disobedience, destruction and the deployment of tear gas.

The crowd, which comprised mostly of young protesters, could be clearly seen on video using a cargo cart and large poles as battering rams against the glass panel of the legislative building. The demonstrators then broke part of a glass and metal wall of the government building, carrying away the long strips of metal framework.

The Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, meanwhile, released a statement through the state-run Xinhua news agency, slamming the protesters as well, the Guardian reported.

The office said it was “shocked, indignant and strongly condemned” the siege of the government building that came following the massive protests over a controversial extradition bill concerning China.

“Some extreme elements used excessive violence to storm the legislature building and carried out a series of large-scale assaults. This is shocking, heart-breaking and angering,” the statement said.

“Their violent acts are an extreme challenge to Hong Kong’s rule of law and seriously undermined Hong Kong’s peace and stability. It is totally intolerable.”