A group of Chinese naval vessels, including a destroyer, yesterday passed through a waterway between two islands administered by the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, as it returned home after testing far-seas capabilities, China said.
Vessel formation 133 dispatched by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command completed its training in the western Pacific, and has returned through the Yonaguni-Iriomote Waterway, said the command, which is responsible for east China, the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
While non-Japanese vessels are allowed to pass through the narrow band of waters in the middle of the Yonaguni-Iriomote Waterway, Japan reserves the right to take action if vessels stray into the country’s territorial sea, defined as seas 12 nautical miles (22km) from its shoreline.
Photo: Reuters
The width of the waterway is about 65km.
To reach the Pacific Ocean, the PLA formation on Sunday sailed between the Japanese islands of Amami Oshima and Yokoate, a passage northeast of the Yonaguni-Iriomote Waterway and farther away from Taiwan.
The transit followed the passage of a Japanese destroyer through the Taiwan Strait on Friday that Beijing said was a “deliberate provocation.”
Beijing has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing through the Taiwan Strait, which China says is not international waters.
The Japanese transit provoked an angry response from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said Japan’s deployment of a military vessel in the Strait was “a display of force” and “a deliberate provocation” that threatens China’s sovereignty and security.
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense said that the passage of the Japanese destroyer had sent a “wrong” signal to pro-independence forces in Taiwan.
Sino-Japanese ties have significantly weakened since November last year when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could be considered an “existential threat” to Japan, triggering a military response.
Yonaguni, just 110km off Taiwan’s eastern coast, is increasingly on the radar of China and Japan.
In September 2024, PLA Navy aircraft carrier the Liaoning (遼寧) passed through the Yonaguni-Iriomote Waterway, marking the first transit of a Chinese aircraft carrier in Japan’s contiguous waters, triggering loud protests from Tokyo.
In November last year, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said it had been advancing a plan to deploy a medium-range surface-to-air missile unit at a military base on the island.
The announcement triggered even more hostility from China, which has said the move was “extremely dangerous.”
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