China flexes territory muscles

Beijing dispatches naval vessels and aircraft in drill amid island row with Japan

BEIJING: China dispatched naval vessels, aircraft and helicopters to the East China Sea, flexing its muscles in exercises likely to further stoke a bristling territorial dispute with Japan.

A fleet of 11 vessels, including some warships, along with eight aircraft were sent to waters off its east coast, China said, in Beijing’s most confrontational act yet in a row that has chilled ties between the regional heavyweights.

The one-day exercises were announced on Thursday in a dispatch by the official Xinhua news agency that China’s defence ministry also posted on its website.

State-run China Central Television (CCTV) showed images of several warships and helicopters carrying out manoeuvres.

It was unclear where in the East China Sea the exercises were taking place. The sea is home to tiny islets known as the Diaoyus in China and the Senkakus in Japan, which are administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.

Tensions in the long-running territorial dispute have soared since the Japanese government’s move last month to formally nationalise the islands, which triggered anti-Japan protests across China and hit the sales of Japanese-manufactured products.

China has since then taken a number of steps seen as snubbing Tokyo, including refusing to send top officials to a global economic conference in Japan this month.

A Foreign Ministry official in Beijing blamed Tokyo for ratcheting up tension in the region when asked about the exercises at a regular press briefing yesterday.

“The heating up of the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands between China and Japan is entirely caused by Japan’s illegal act of purchasing the islands,” spokesman Hong Lei said.

“The Chinese government’s resolve and determination to safeguard national territorial sovereignty is unswerving.”

China has previously sent maritime surveillance ships and fisheries patrol vessels to waters near the islands as the row has escalated.

Meanwhile, Japan’s foreign minister said in Berlin yesterday that his country was seeking to resolve peacefully the territorial row with China.

Koichiro Gemba told reporters during a visit to the German capital that Japan wanted to avoid an escalation in the long-running dispute and called for further dialogue with China.

“What I can say here is that ultimately we are aiming for a peaceful solution based on international law,” he said through an interpreter at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

“We must expand the dialogue in Japan-China relations,” he added.

In Manila, Philippine and Chinese officials held “candid” talks yesterday in a bid to improve relations strained by a bitter territorial dispute in the South China Sea, official statements said.

A delegation led by Chinese ViceForeign Minister Fu Ying met Philippine President Benigno Aquino and other senior officials for talks aimed at minimising tensions and bolstering trade and economic links.

“The two sides ... had candid and in-depth discussions on the issues existing in their relations and agreed to ... properly address differences so as to avoid negative impact,” Fu said in a statement.

Tensions over competing claims to parts of the South China Sea escalated in April this year when ships from the two countries became locked in a stand-off over a tiny group of islets called Scarborough Shoal. China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters close to the coasts of neighbouring countries.

The Philippines says the Scarborough Shoal is well within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

Aquino told Fu that “the Philippines has been fostering a conducive atmosphere so that both sides can come to a mutually beneficial solution to issues of mutual concern”, according to another joint statement.

“Vice-Foreign Minister Fu also expressed the Chinese government’s desire to move Philippines-China relations forward,” the statement added, but did not specify if the maritime dispute was discussed.

Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio separately acknowledged that the issue was a topic of discussion, but refused to elaborate.