- "Tokyo must have concluded that a potential cross-Strait war
would interrupt Japan's energy supply routes from the Middle
East" - Yale Global - "Japan sees a key sea route, the Taiwan
Strait, in danger." - Der Spiegel - The red route is the
shortest path between Singapore and Yokohama. It passes the
Luzon Strait (Babuyan Channel and Bashi Channel), not the Taiwan
Strait - The yellow route passes through Taiwan Strait, is
obviously a detour from Japan to anywhere, except maybe Haiphong
- For transportation of other materials from SE Asia, e.g.
Brunei, the Black route shows that Taiwan Strait is even further
away from the ideal route - Even if Taiwan Strait is more
convenient, the availability of the alternative via Luzon Strait
deems it "optional" instead of "essential" Update: US PACOM map
agrees with me. Now, why is Japan so interested in a sea route
which is really very marginal to its needs? A note about Great
Circle (geodesic) path: Since the earth is a sphere and the map
is a projection onto a plane (w