Although deeply concerned by the Chinese missile tests near Taiwan, Japan and other countries in the region are carefully avoiding any strong criticism for fear of offending China.
One of the missile target zones is less than 40 miles from a Japanese island, Yonaguni, nearly as close to that island as it is to Taiwan. But the Japanese government is playing down its worries and taking a low-key stand."This is an unfortunate direction," Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said of the missile tests in his only public comment. Hashimoto added that because the tests were taking place on the open seas, they might not pose any concerns in international law.
Some Asian government officials and business executives say that the risk of a war between China and Taiwan at some time, while unlikely, must be taken seriously because it is one of the few things that could ruin the bright prospects of all of East Asia.
But although some countries, like New Zealand and the Philippines, are calling for restraint, many are biting their tongues for fear of annoying their increasingly powerful neighbors in Beijing.
China began the missile tests on Friday by firing three missiles into waters near two of Taiwan's major ports, and on Saturday Beijing announced additional live-fire naval and air force exercises in the nearby seas.
The tests are widely seen as an attempt to intimidate Taiwan from any talk of a future independent of China, in the two weeks before Taiwan's first direct presidential election.
One test zone, southwest of Taiwan near the port of Kaohsiung, is far from Japan. But the other, northeast of Taiwan near the port of Keelung, is near Yonaguni and other Japanese islands that are part of Okinawa Prefecture.
Yet at the same time that the White House was denouncing the missile tests as "provocative and reckless," Japan's chief government spokesman, Seiroku Kaji-yama, would go no further than calling them "regrettable."
"They are going to have a strong effect on shipping, fishing and international flights, so we do want to urge self-restraint," Kajiyama said.