Ryukyu Card as Strategic Leverage

Chinese establishment commentators are explicitly proposing to exploit Okinawan anti‑base politics and indigenous claims as a sustained instrument of pressure on Tokyo—i.e., turning subnational grievances into a foreign‑policy lever. The tactic bundles legal diplomacy, economic coercion, and public messaging to raise political costs for a more militarised Japan. — If a major power operationalizes support for local territorial or indigenous claims as routine statecraft, it creates a durable, low‑escalation pressure point that complicates alliance politics and crisis management in East Asia.