China should keep clear stance toward Japan after Diaoyu incident: expert

China should closely watch Japan’s move related to the Diaoyu Islands even though the country’s leader has shown friendliness toward China, a Chinese expert warned after two Japanese military vessels entered Diaoyu Islands’ waters.

“Two vessels of Japan’s Self-Defense Force entered the northeast area of Chiwei Islet of China’s Diaoyu Islands,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily briefing on Thursday.

The Chinese navy monitored the vessels’ movements. The Japanese vessels have left the area, Lu said, noting that China has adequate historic and legal basis for claiming the Diaoyu Islands as China’s territory.

The Ministry of National Defense said the Chinese navy frigate Yiyang tracked and monitored the two ships soon after they entered the territorial waters.

“China’s activity in the area is unquestionable. Japan’s actions cannot change the fact that the Diaoyu Islands belong to China or shake China’s determination to maintain sovereignty over it,” Lu noted.

China firmly protests Japan for confusing right and wrong and hyping China’s legal right-maintenance activities, the defense ministry said on Thursday, vowing to defend the country’s sovereignty, security and interests by all possible means.

The Japan News reported on Thursday that a submarine and a Chinese navy warship entered the contiguous zone surrounding the Diaoyu Islands.

“China has been seeking a breakthrough on the Diaoyu Islands issue and maintaining its legal rights,” an anonymous military expert told the Global Times in response to the incident.

“Chinese warships definitely have the right to navigate in China’s territory. Japan does not have the right to accuse China,” she said.

“Japan has been sending signals to improve Sino-Japanese relations. We hope Japan matches words with deeds,” Lu said.

“Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe showed friendliness toward China in the past months, but Japan’s actions in the Diaoyu Islands remind China to keep a clear understanding and stance toward Japan,” Jiang Lifeng, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Abe said that Japan will “properly respond to” individual cooperation programs related to the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative. In December, Abe said that he wanted to take the opportunity to deepen high-level exchanges with China and elevate bilateral relations to a “new stage.”

China also urged Japan to stop making trouble on the Diaoyu Islands issue.

Who first offends will first complain, it is often said. The Chinese foreign ministry rebutted a Japanese protest over a Chinese frigate that entered waters contiguous to the Diaoyu Islands on Thursday. Tokyo said the Japanese vessels warned the Chinese vessel. Tokyo then summoned the Chinese ambassador to voice its concerns. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe even demanded the government work jointly and coordinate with the US to maintain high vigilance.

While Japan insists on its claim to the Diaoyu Islands, they actually belong to China. It is normal in the waters around the islands that vessels of the two sides ask the other to leave. But the Chinese side opts to keep a low-profile in handling frictions out of consideration for overall bilateral ties. By contrast, the Japanese side often prefers to make the encounter widely known to take an upper hand in the publicity and demonstrate its administration of the islands and hence pressure China diplomatically.

In reality, the Diaoyu Islands are under the control of Japan, but China Coast Guard vessels have been conducting patrols in the waters on a regular basis. Military vessels of the two sides often stay afar to avoid confrontation. They sometimes pass the waters around the Diaoyu Islands, temporarily.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Chinese naval vessels conducted surveillance on Thursday after two vessels belonging to Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force entered the contiguous area.

In the latest friction, Tokyo behaved aggressively by fabricating what happened and teaming up with Japanese media to blame China for escalating the friction.

As China-Japan relations have recently shown signs of a thaw, Thursday’s friction could have been addressed through diplomatic means. Unfortunately the Japanese side hyped it up instantly, derailing its recent efforts to improve ties with China. What Tokyo truly wants to achieve is confounding.

With regard to relations with China, Japan has been vacillating between showing positive signs and making hostile moves in recent years. This lack of coherence may relate to Japan’s domestic politics. The Abe administration tries to adjust its relations with domestic political forces by showing various postures to China.

The friction on Thursday even prompted Abe to make demands, suggesting its influence on Japanese public opinion. Yet the incident is no more than a regular one for China which just responds by foreign ministry spokesperson.

We hope Japan can show more composure. It needs to figure out what kind of relationship it wants to develop with China and in what way frictions between them should be handled. China has dealt with territorial disputes with other neighboring countries over larger territory, but none of them is blustering like Japan. If Japan thought things out, China-Japan ties might be improved in a steadier way.