Tokyo yesterday protested to Beijing after Chinese Coast Guard vessels sailed into territorial waters surrounding disputed islands in the East China Sea, Japan said.
Four Chinese vessels entered the waters around the Japanese-controlled Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as the Senkakus in Japan — at about 10am, the Japan Coast Guard said, adding that the vessels left the waters within one hour.
The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over the uninhabited islets, which Taiwan also claims.
Tokyo has lodged at least 32 protests through diplomatic channels since Aug. 5 over what it said have been about 30 intrusions by Chinese vessels in the territorial waters.
Japan’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Director-General Kenji Kanasugi yesterday issued a protest to the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, saying that the ships’ “incursion” violated Japan’s sovereignty, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Despite Japan’s repeated strong protests, the Chinese side has continued to take unilateral actions that raise tensions on the ground, and that is absolutely unacceptable,” the statement added.
China is also involved in maritime disputes in the South China Sea with countries including the Philippines, but a UN-backed tribunal has ruled that Beijing’s claims were invalid.
In related news, Chinese aircraft and ships held war games in the Sea of Japan last week, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said, during which Beijing displayed its latest-generation frigate.
The ministry said in a statement on its Web site late on Saturday that the long-range exercises staged on Friday pitted a red army against a blue one in a simulated bomber attack on a naval task force.
It quoted the commander of an unidentified flight wing under China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy’s East Sea Fleet, Zhang Wenzhong, as saying the planes found, identified and struck their targets in a “radically short time.”
The statement made no mention of what sort of conflict the exercise was intended as a response to, prospective foes or why the Sea of Japan was chosen as the location of the drills.
The ministry said the main ships involved in the exercise were the Jingzhou, a latest-generation type 054A class stealth frigate of which China is planning to deploy more than two dozen, and the type 052C destroyer Xi’an.
The ministry said aircraft were guided to their targets with the aid of early warning planes.
Other types of aircraft involved were not identified, although China has been touting the capabilities of its latest-generation long-range H-6K strategic bomber equipped with the DH-20 land-attack cruise missile, giving it the ability to hit targets as far away as Australia.
Only Russia and the US are currently able to launch cruise missiles from the air.
Additional reporting by AP
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