China urges regional alert as US military steps up forward deployment

On Thursday, China's defense ministry called for heightened vigilance in the Asia-Pacific region, citing increased forward military deployment by the United States. This comes in response to reports of a U.S. initiative to resurrect a Pacific airfield associated with the atomic bombings of Japan.

The Chinese military is closely monitoring U.S. actions and is committed to steadfastly defending China's maritime rights, security, and sovereignty in the region, emphasized Wu Qian, a spokesperson at the defense ministry, during a routine press conference.
In December, a U.S. Air Force general informed Japan's Nikkei newspaper that substantial strides would be made in the coming months to clear the overgrown jungle vegetation and reclaim the Tinian North airfield. This initiative is part of a broader plan to strategically disperse aircraft across the Indo-Pacific region in response to the escalating missile threat posed by China.

Situated on Tinian island, an abandoned airfield from World War II, the site is located within the Northern Mariana Islands—a U.S. territory—approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Guam.