About two months have passed since the tragic accident off Henoko, Okinawa Prefecture, where opposition to base construction continues. Two small boats operated by the protest group “Helicopter Base Opposition Council” capsized, killing a 17-year-old high school girl and the boat’s captain. As criticism mounts over the group’s sloppy handling of the situation, new facts have come to light. In the May 29, 2026 issue of Weekly Post, released on May 18, nonfiction writer Mineyoshi Yasuda, who is well versed in Chinese affairs, reports the details.
“What you can see behind me is the Henoko sea area. Because of the construction of the U.S. military base…” So begins a Chinese-language news video released this February. The woman speaking with the Henoko sea in the background is Xing Xiaojing, a reporter for the Global Times, a media outlet designated by the U.S. State Department as a “propaganda organ” of the Chinese Communist Party.
The video shows her and the others boarding a tourist glass-bottom boat with a solid cabin. As warning announcements from the authorities can be heard, the footage captures them boldly approaching the U.S. military base and filming inside the restricted area, saying things like, “Can I take photos here?” and “You’re free to take as many as you like!”
At the time, the person steering the boat and guiding the group was Takuma Higashionna, secretary-general of the opposition council and a sitting Nago city assembly member. In March of this year, however, the boat that capsized while carrying the high school students was an unstable “protest boat” used to confront Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels. Why did the opposition council provide the Chinese reporters with a comparatively safe boat, while assigning a dangerous boat to high school students who had no way to refuse?
by liatris4405