US deployment of the Typhon missile system to southern Japan could directly threaten China’s coastal cities and block crucial naval routes to the Pacific, a Chinese analyst has warned. The Typhon mid-range missile launcher was expected to be positioned in southwestern Japan next month for joint US-Japan military exercises, Kyodo News reported last week. Fu Qianshao, a Beijing-based military analyst, said the reported deployment site – Kanoya Airbase in Kagoshima prefecture – was alarming because