Growing tension over the Senkaku islands

[vector7]

US Pacific commander warns of growing China-Japan tension over disputed islands

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
Jan 23, 1:26 PM EST
Associated Press


Admiral Samuel Locklear III, commander of US Pacific Command, delivers remarks during a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, January 23, 2014 (AFP, Jim Watson)


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said Thursday the tensions between China and Japan are likely to grow unless they talk to each other.

The two Asian powers are at loggerheads over remote islands that are administered by Japan but also claimed by China. Beijing has also been angered by a recent visit by Japan's prime minister to a controversial war shrine.

Adm. Samuel Locklear told a news conference that "the risk calculation can grow" when two large powers have a disagreement but aren't talking to each other and when there's no clear resolution in sight.

Washington's treaty obligations to its ally Japan mean it could be drawn into a conflict over the islands, known as Senkaku by Japan and Diayou by China.

Locklear said the U.S. has to continue to encourage restraint and professionalism by the two nations' maritime security forces operating around the islands, and hope for a diplomatic solution.

"In many cases, those are young naval officers or young civilian mariners who are out there" making decisions, Locklear said.

China's assertive behavior in pursuing its territorial claims have rattled its neighbors and raised the stakes as its military buildup challenges decades of U.S. predominance in the Asia-Pacific.

Locklear said the U.S. and China have made some progress in forging military ties, but he criticized China's conduct during a near-collision between their warships in the South China Sea in December.

The Dec. 5 incident involving USS Cowpens and a Chinese naval ship was "unnecessary," Locklear said, attributing it to "unprofessional" Chinese conduct or a "lack of experience."

China's defense ministry has given few details about the confrontation - the most serious incident between the two navies since 2009 - but said its ship handled it according to operating procedures. Chinese media reports blamed the U.S. ship for getting too close to vessels escorting China's new aircraft carrier Liaoning.

"This just highlights to both of us, to both the PLA and to the U.S. military, that we have to do better at being able to communicate with each other in a way that allows us to not lead to miscalculation," Locklear said, referring to the People's Liberation Army, as China's military is formally known.

Locklear acknowledged he's not yet able to "pick up the phone and talk directly toa PLA navy admiral or general at the time of a crisis."

Turning to North Korea, Locklear confirmed that the U.S. would be conducting key military exercises with ally South Korea in February, despite demands from the North that they be canceled.

Locklear described North Korea as "a potentially very dangerous place," and questioned whether its young leader, Kim Jong Un, "is always in the rational decision-making mode or not."

Since taking power two years ago, Kim has drawn international condemnation for conducting long-range rocket and nuclear tests. The December execution of Kim's powerful uncle, a key interlocutor between Pyongyang and its ally China, has raised questions about the stability of his authoritarian government.

[American Patriot]

January 24, 2014
U.S. Pacific forces chief concerned over Japan-China tension ^Reply

Escalation / Destabilization Conflict • Tags: China, Japan, Kim Jong-un, Locklear, North Korea, People's Liberation Army, South China Sea, USS Cowpens

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
Jan. 24, 2014 – 03:00PM JST



WASHINGTON —


The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said Thursday the tensions between China and Japan are likely to grow unless they talk to each other.


The two Asian powers are at loggerheads over remote islands that are administered by Japan but also claimed by China. Beijing has also been angered by a recent visit by Japan’s prime minister to a controversial war shrine.






Adm. Samuel Locklear told a news conference that “the risk calculation can grow” when two large powers have a disagreement but aren’t talking to each other and when there’s no clear resolution in sight.


Washington’s treaty obligations to its ally Japan mean it could be sucked into a conflict over the islands, known as Senkaku by Japan and Diayou by China.


Locklear said the U.S. has to continue to encourage restraint and professionalism by the two nations’ maritime security forces operating around the islands, and hope for a diplomatic solution.


“In many cases, those are young naval officers or young civilian mariners who are out there” making decisions, Locklear said.


China’s assertive behavior in pursuing its territorial claims have rattled its neighbors and raised the stakes as its military build-up challenges decades of U.S. predominance in the Asia-Pacific.


Locklear said the U.S. and China have made some progress in forging military ties, but he criticized China’s conduct during a near-collision between their warships in the South China Sea in December.


The Dec. 5 incident involving USS Cowpens and a Chinese naval ship was “unnecessary,” Locklear said, attributing it to “unprofessional” Chinese conduct or a “lack of experience.”


China’s defense ministry has given few details about the confrontation — the most serious incident between the two navies since 2009 — but said its ship handled it according to operating procedures. Chinese media report blamed the U.S. ship for getting too close to vessels escorting China’s new aircraft carrier Liaoning.


“This just highlights to both of us, to both the PLA and to the U.S. military, that we have to do better at being able to communicate with each other in a way that allows us to not lead to miscalculation,” Locklear said, referring to the People’s Liberation Army, as China’s military is formally known.


Locklear acknowledged he’s not yet able to “pick up the phone and talk directly to a PLA navy admiral or general at the time of a crisis.”


Turning to North Korea, Locklear confirmed that the U.S. would be conducting key military exercises with ally South Korea in February, despite demands from the North that they be canceled.


Locklear described North Korea as “a potentially very dangerous place,” and questioned whether its young leader, Kim Jong Un, “is always in the rational decision-making mode or not.”


Since taking power two years ago, Kim has drawn international condemnation for conducting long-range rocket and nuclear tests. The December execution of Kim’s powerful uncle, a key interlocutor between Pyongyang and its ally China, has raised questions about the stability of his authoritarian government

[American Patriot]

Japan-China war of words goes ballistic in Davos

China and Japan at Davos
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: January 24th, 2014
Comment on this Comment on this article

Photo: AP

Anybody who thinks China’s dispute with Japan is subject to rational calculation should have heard the astonishing outburst a few minutes ago by China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi.

“We will never allow past aggressors to overturn the verdict of history,” he began. It went downhill from there.

When asked what he thought about the latest warning by Japan’s leader Shinzo Abe that the two countries are like England and Germany in 1914, he exploded with barely contained rage:

“Why would he make such a statement? Japanese leaders like to rewrite their history, but the Chinese people cannot forget episodes of history. The invasion of Manchuria in 1930 was an infamous chapter in Japan’s history. In 1937 they instigated the Marco Polo bridge incident before launching an all-out onslaught on China.

“Thirty-five million Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed. Who was the instigator? Who was the troublemaker? It is all too clear.”

He turned visceral over Mr Abe’s recent visit to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo: “Even to this day the shrine still advocates that past aggression was justified, that the Pacific War was in self defence. It calls war criminals heroes, even today.

“How can a leader puts flowers on a shrine that violates international principles in this way? Japan’s Class A criminals were likes the Nazis. Can you imagine a European leader laying a wreath at a Nazi memorial?”

On the Diaoyu-Senkaku islands – the “Sarajevo” hot spot in the East China Sea – he claimed that Tokyo ignored warnings from Beijing that any move to nationalise the islands would be a grave escalation: “They broke the status quo. We had no choice but to move.”

I don’t wish to take sides in this dispute but it is a sobering to listen to this from China’s leading diplomat, an official who might normally try to play things down.

Yesterday in Davos I heard Japan’s premier Abe fulminate over the dangers of an arms race in East Asia that could shatter the existing world order, even as he attacked the secrecy of China’s defence budget.

“We must restrain military expansion in Asia, which could otherwise go unchecked. Disputes must be settled by the rule of law, and not through force and coercion,” he said.

He went on to tell Gideon Rachman at the FT that China and Japan were in a “similar situation” to the German and England in 1914, caught in dangerous process of great power escalation – even though their economies were intertwined by trade.

As readers know, I have been writing about this parallel for a long time. China is exploiting incidents to test the willingness of the United States to stand behind its treaty alliance with Japan, just as Kaiser Wilhelm provoked spats to test England’s willingness to stand behind its entente with France. It was a self-reinforcing process before 1914, and it is self-reinforcing now. All it takes to produce a catalyst is some “damn fool thing in the Balkans” to borrow a term.

Yet it is not just a calculated policy by China’s Communist Party, a stirring up of revanchiste nationalism to replace the dead ideology of Maoism. Emotions are also running out of control, and Mr Abe is of course a red-flag for a bull.

The Japanese leader is a hard-core nationalist. Despite his pitch yesterday that Japan has “sworn an oath never again to wage a war”, his government is in fact rearming fast. Japan has increased spending on military equipment by 23pc last year and is launching its largest ship since the Second World War, a helicopter carrier that can be used for hybrid jets.

Listening to the raw passion in the voices of Shinzo Abe and Wang Yi over the last 24 hours, I think there is an astonishing level complacency about the world’s most dangerous fault-line.

More by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: West’s 30-year vendetta with Iran is finally buried Trying to deleverage China without blowing up the system $60 oil will finish Russia’s Putin regime

[American Patriot]

China Warning Aircraft Entering Its Self-Proclaimed “Air Defense Identification Zone” Over the East China Sea


Photo: A Japanese P-3 maritime patrol aircraft monitors the East China Sea islands known in Japan as the Senkakus
BEIJING (AP) — China said Friday it has begun issuing warnings to foreign military planes entering its self-declared air defense zone over the East China Sea amid heightened tensions with its neighbors, especially Japan.

Bitter rhetoric between the neighbors has spiked since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a late-December visit to a war shrine in Tokyo that outraged Beijing. Abe this week compared the tense relationship to the pre-World War I rivalry between Britain and Germany. Japanese officials say the comment was meant as a warning to avoid war.


Chinese state media quoted air force spokesman Shen Jinke as saying several kinds of Chinese planes recently patrolled the sweeping zone that was declared in November. He said the planes identified several foreign military aircraft, flew alongside them and issued them warnings. He didn’t identify the planes or say when the patrol was conducted.


The zone is a “purely defensive measure that conforms to international practice,” Shen said.


The U.S., Japan and other countries denounced the zone’s declaration in November as provocative and said they would ignore China’s demands that their military aircraft announce flight plans, identify themselves and follow Chinese instructions. China has said it would take unspecified measures against aircraft that disobey.


In a policy address Friday in Tokyo, Abe reiterated Japan’s position, saying it would “not tolerate any attempt to change the status quo by force.” He said Japan would beef up its defensive capabilities “in order to defend the safety in the southwestern region, as well as the vast sea and airspace around Japan.”


.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, gestures as he speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Photo: AP











The zone is seen primarily as targeting Japanese and U.S. military flights over the East China Sea. Its declaration followed more than a year of heightened tensions between China and Japan over control of a series of tiny uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. The zone pointedly incorporates the island chain, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, which are controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.


The zone also incorporates a vast area of international airspace from Taiwan to the Korean Peninsula and overlaps in places with zones enforced by South Korea and Japan.
China and Japan have been engaged in a heightened war of words since Abe visited the Yasukuni shrine honoring war dead, including commanders executed as war criminals for committing atrocities in China and elsewhere during World War II. China has furiously protested the visit and launched a new round of invective against Japan in international media and diplomatic circles.


Abe says the visits are intended to pay homage to those who died and to show his commitment to pacifism, not to praise war criminals.


China’s Foreign Ministry said Abe’s World War I comments made Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switerzerland, and his visit to the shrine were signs of belligerence. “The Japanese leader, while paying lip-service to a positive peace policy, is effectively adopting a policy of military expansion and preparation for war,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Friday.


However, Japan’s Cabinet Secretary Yoshide Suga said Abe was drawing the Britain-Germany analogy as a warning for the two Asian countries not to repeat the same mistake of being drawn into a war despite their extensive trade ties.


Suga also told reporters that he is aware of reports that China had issued warnings to foreign aircraft, but declined to confirm them. “I don’t understand what China means by voice-warning,” Suga said. Japan’s defense ministry has not reported any “abnormal flights” by Chinese military jets since Beijing declared its air zone, he said.
China’s announcement about issuing warnings shows Beijing is serious about enforcing the zone and will likely be seen as an escalation by Japan and others, said Huang Jing, a China expert at Singapore National University’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. China has consistently unnerved its neighbors since announcing the air defense zone with no advance warning and little explanation, he said.


China has rejected all such criticisms, and a government-backed scholar said a significant sector of the public believes Beijing hasn’t gone far enough in challenging Tokyo and the U.S.


“Japan has its own air defense zone, so why shouldn’t China? This is something China should have done a long time ago,” said Qu Xing, head of the China Institute of International Studies, a think tank affiliated with the Foreign Ministry.


____
Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Related:


Japan-China war of words goes ballistic in Davos
China, Japan relations spiral down: U.S. “Pivot” to Asia Too Little Too Late? — “The United States is hardly being listened to”
Barack Obama: Standing Idly By
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe at Davos: Issues a Warning of China’s Dangerous Militancy
Top U.S. Military Commander for Asia “Concerned” About Actions By China, Japan in East China and South China Seas


In April, Obama is scheduled to visit Asia but will bypass Beijing
Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, adjusts his translation earpiece at the start of the 45th Security Consultative Meeting at the Defence Ministry in Seoul, October 2, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool
Top U.S. Military Commander for Asia “Concerned” About Actions By China, Japan in East China and South China Seas






Above: China’s claims are vast and contrary to international law.

Vietnam says some of Truong Sa and all of Hoang are sovereign Vietnamese islands

More than about fish: China’s sea disputes are not purely about rightful, historic ownership as China claims. Vast undersea wealth in oil and gas is below the seas, geologists say, in both the South China Sea and East China Sea.


The chart below shows the area declared by China on 1 January 2014 as “an area under China’s jurisdiction.” China says “foreign fishing vessels” can only enter and work in this area with prior approval from China. Vietnam, the Philippines and others have said they will not comply with China’s law.

[American Patriot]

Chinese navy provokes anxiety in ASEAN after warships patrol off Malaysia coast

BEIJING/KUALA LUMPUR — Chinese ships patrolling an area contested by Malaysia are likely to cause more anxiety across Southeast Asia and risk the ire of a country that has long sought to downplay strategic concerns generated by China’s rising power.
On Sunday, three Chinese ships patrolled the James Shoal in the South China Sea, about 80 kilometers off Sarawak on Borneo island, which Beijing counts as the southernmost part of its territory. Soldiers on board swore to safeguard China’s sovereignty, in the latest sign of Beijing’s increasing territorial assertiveness in the waters.
By Esther Teo and Yong Yen Nie , The Nation/Asia

On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang emphasized at a regular press conference China’s “indisputable sovereignty” of the shoal, but said it is willing to use negotiations to resolve the dispute and is committed to protecting regional peace and stability.
While Malaysia’s foreign ministry did not respond to press queries, Qin said Malaysia has not lodged an official protest over Sunday’s patrol.
But some experts say the move will antagonize Kuala Lumpur — an ASEAN member with “significant influence” — and might shift the state of play in the maritime territorial dispute.
Beijing is in an ugly territorial spat over conflicting claims to parts of the resource-rich sea with four ASEAN states: the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. It has a separate dispute with Japan in the East China Sea, over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, around which three Chinese Coast Guard vessels sailed on Monday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Philippines and Vietnam have been the most vocal in expressing alarm, most recently over new Chinese laws requiring foreign fishermen to seek Beijing’s approval to operate in the disputed waters.
But Malaysia has traditionally avoided confrontations as the two states have set their dispute aside in the interest of stronger diplomatic and trading ties, noted Dr. Oh Ei Sun from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
China is Malaysia’s largest trading partner while the latter is China’s third largest in Asia.
But bilateral ties could be strained with China’s demonstrations of its military might becoming more frequent as its naval capabilities grow. Last March, four Chinese warships carried out a landing exercise around James Shoal — the first major show of force in the area since 1987 when a powerful flotilla of Chinese warships made its presence felt there.
The flexing of its naval muscles twice in the past 12 months is likely to “greatly annoy” Malaysia, said Dr. Ian Storey from Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
“If this modern form of gunboat diplomacy by China continues, Sino-Malaysian relations are likely to suffer,” he added.
“Kuala Lumpur may have to change tack and articulate its concerns to Beijing more clearly and more frequently, and even step-up policy coordination with the other ASEAN claimants.”
It is not in China’s interest to provoke ASEAN countries, especially when it is also attempting to form alliances in this region, Dr. Oh added. “China needs friends in Southeast Asia as it already has its plate full with other island disputes with Japan,” he said.
Yet Chinese experts remained optimistic about the future of bilateral relations.
Jinan University’s Southeast Asia expert Zhang Mingliang told The Straits Times relations are unlikely to be affected due to the “special relationship” that Beijing and Kuala Lumpur share, possibly because Malaysia was the first ASEAN state to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1974.
“Both countries have always settled their territorial dispute outside of the public eye and have not openly criticized each other. Policies taken in this regard are practical and low-key,” he said.
But he acknowledged that while Malaysia might not respond openly, it is likely to take steps to beef up its territorial claims.
Last October, for instance, Malaysia’s defense minister said its navy would set up a base at Bintulu in Sarawak to protect the region and its oil and gas reserves. ASEAN expert Xu Liping of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said “closer relations” between Malaysia and China compared with the Philippines will prevent the situation from escalating.

China claims “indisputable” and “inherent” sovereignty over the South China Sea
The chart below shows the area declared by China on 1 January 2014 as “an area under China’s jurisdiction.” China says “foreign fishing vessels” can only enter and work in this area with prior approval from China. Vietnam, the Philippines and others have said they will not comply with China’s law.

[American Patriot]

China Scolds Japan on East China Sea Islands, World War II Atrocities and Abuses

BEIJING, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) — China on Tuesday urged Japan to respect historical fact, stop provoking, and educate the younger generation with a correct view of history, as Japan is set to revise its textbook guidelines on the Diaoyu islands.


“The Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated isles have been an inherent part of Chinese territory since ancient times,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing.


The Japanese education ministry will claim the Diaoyu Islands as Japan’s inherent territory in the new guidelines for junior middle school and high school textbooks.


“We are greatly concerned about that and have lodged solemn representation to the Japanese side,” Hua said.


Japan’s efforts in promoting its wrong stance can never change the fundamental fact that the Diaoyu Islands belong to China, she said.


Hua urged Japan to take solid actions to improve relations with its neighbors.


Japan’s relations with China and the Republic of Korea have been tense due to disputes on territorial and historical issues. Relations have been especially tense since the Japanese government nationalized the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea in 2012 and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s December visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese World War II criminals are honored.



Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe visits the controversial Yasukuni shrine

[American Patriot]

Japan’s envoy to U.S. urges calm amid tensions with China

WASHINGTON — Associated Press

Japan’s ambassador to the United States called for improved relations with China on Wednesday as the top U.S. intelligence official warned that territorial disputes and nationalist fervor are increasing the risk of conflict in East Asia.

Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae said people are afraid of the consequences of a deteriorating relationship between the two Asian powers, and appealed for a calming of “agitated remarks” from both sides.

Sasae told a Washington think tank constructive dialogue was needed, but also said Japan would not give in to pressure over its sovereignty claims.

The long-running dispute over unoccupied islands that Japan calls Senkaku and China calls Diaoyu has grown more intense since Japan, a key U.S. ally, nationalized some of them in 2012. China has stepped up patrols around the islands, which are controlled by Japan but claimed by both nations. China recently declared an air defense zone over the islands, drawing stiff international criticism.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday on worldwide threats that China will probably continue a “hardline stance” toward Japan over the islands.

In written testimony that also noted China’s military modernization and growing confidence, Clapper predicted that sovereignty concerns and historical resentments will generate friction and “occasional incidents” between claimants in the East and South China Sea.

China has competing territorial claims with several neighbors, including with smaller nations in Southeast Asia.

China’s rivalry with Japan is also fueled by resentment over imperial Japan’s occupation of parts of China in the first half of the 20th century and wartime abuses.

Sasae alluded to those concerns in his remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“We have to always remember the history and past, but it’s not productive to only talk about the history and past things, and remembering and agitating the people’s emotions in a negative way. And that’s what I want to avoid,” Sasae said. “So I really hope that this year we could go into a very constructive dialogue with China.”

The immediate prospects aren’t rosy.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a controversial war shrine in Tokyo in late December, angering China and even drawing U.S. disapproval. Among the 2.5 million war dead commemorated at the shrine are 14 class A war criminals from World War II.

Afterward, China said Abe would not be welcome in China.