Chinese military, fishing boats near disputed islets draw Tokyo protest
Beijing’s ‘combat patrols’ in South China Sea area raising tensions
TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) – Japan issued a new protest to Beijing on Saturday after Chinese coast guard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
The latest incident comes amid heightened tensions, less than a month after an arbitration court in The Hague invalidated China’s sweeping claims in the disputed South China Sea, in a case brought by the Philippines.
China has refused to recognize the ruling and did not take part in the proceedings brought by the Philippines. Japan called on China to adhere to the verdict, which it said was binding, prompting warnings from Beijing to Tokyo not to interfere.
A dispute over the shoal, 124 nautical miles northwest of the Philippines mainland, was one of Manila’s main reasons for bringing international legal action against China in 2013.
Beijing has reacted angrily to calls by Western countries and Japan for the decision to be adhered to and has released pictures of aircraft flying over the shoal since the ruling.
Three of the six Chinese coast guard ships that were in the so-called contiguous waters on Saturday appeared to be armed, Japan’s coast guard said.
On Friday, a Japanese foreign ministry official said Chinese coast guard ships and fishing vessels had entered what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around the islets.
Beijing claims the uninhabited, Tokyo-controlled East China Sea islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and occasionally sends its coast guard vessels close to them.
A senior Japanese foreign ministry official on Saturday issued a protest to a Chinese embassy official in Tokyo, calling on the coast guard ships to leave the area immediately and condemning the action as a unilateral escalation of tensions, the ministry said.
Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama had on Friday summoned China’s ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, to lodge a strong protest, the ministry said.
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, in a statement posted on the ministry’s website, said China had indisputable sovereignty over the islands and nearby waters.
“At the same time, China is adopting measures to appropriately manage the situation in relevant waters,” Hua said.
Japan should make “constructive efforts for stability” and not take actions that might complicate the situation, she said, without elaborating.
China on Friday accused Japan’s new defense minister, Tomomi Inada, of recklessly misrepresenting history after she declined to say whether Japanese troops had massacred civilians in China during World War Two.
Ties between China and Japan, the world’s second and third largest economies, have been plagued by the territorial row, the legacy of Japan’s wartime occupation of parts of China and regional rivalry.
China’s air force has sent bombers and fighter jets on “combat patrols” near the contested islands, in a move a senior colonel said was part of an effort to normalize such drills and respond to security threats.
The air force sent several H-6 bombers and Su-30 fighter jets to inspect the airspace around the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, Senior Colonel Shen Jinke of the China’s Air Force said, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The patrols included surveillance and refueling aircraft, Xinhua said, although it did not say when they occurred.
“The Air Force is organizing normalized South China Sea combat patrols, practicing tactics... increasing response capabilities to all kinds of security threats and safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime interests,” Shen said.
China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stoking tension through its military patrols in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually.
China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have rival claims in the South China Sea.
The United States has conducted freedom of navigation patrols close to Chinese-held islands, to Beijing’s anger, while China has been bolstering its military presence there.