Growing tension over the Senkaku islands

[Ryan Ruck]

Ah, so this is the thread you meant to post this in.

Want me to delete the one in the "Hot Deals" thread?

[Ryan Ruck]

8 Chinese Ships Enter Senkaku Waters

April 23, 2013

Japanese coast guard patrollers say 8 Chinese government ships have entered Japan's territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

The presence of 8 Chinese vessels is the largest since Japan nationalized the islands last September. China and Taiwan also claim them.

Japanese patrollers say the 8 Chinese maritime surveillance vessels entered the territorial waters between around 7:30 and 8 A.M. on Tuesday.

They say 3 of them had briefly entered the waters the previous night. In the morning, they returned from just outside the zone with the 5 other ships. The Coast Guard is warning them to leave.

Coast guard officers say 2 Chinese fisheries patrol vessels are navigating just outside the territorial waters as well.

They say 9 Japanese fishing boats are also in the area around the Senkakus. The boats are reportedly carrying dozens of regional lawmakers and members of the foreign media.

China's State Oceanic Administration says on its website that the 8 surveillance ships are monitoring the activities of many Japanese vessels spotted off the islands.

[Ryan Ruck]

Chinese And Japanese Ships Cluster Around Disputed Islands

April 23, 2013

The fragile relationship between China and Japan came under fresh strain Tuesday as ships from both sides crowded into the waters around a disputed group of islands and nearly 170 Japanese lawmakers visited a controversial war memorial.

The Japanese Coast Guard said eight Chinese government ships had entered waters near the contested islands in the East China Sea on Tuesday morning, the largest number to do so at any one time since tensions surrounding the territorial dispute escalated last year. China said its ships were there to monitor the movements of Japanese vessels in the area after a Japanese nationalist group chartered a flotilla of fishing boats to take dozens of activists there.

The Japanese foreign ministry responded by summoning the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo to lodge a strong protest about the Chinese ships' presence near the uninhabited islands that lie between Okinawa and Taiwan and are known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. The Chinese ambassador, Cheng Yonghua, retorted that it was the Japanese vessels that were intruding in Chinese territory.

Will radar-rattling turn to conflict?

A day earlier, Beijing had protested to Tokyo about a visit at the weekend by three Japanese cabinet ministers to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors Japanese people killed while fighting for their country, including convicted war criminals.

Countries that suffered heavily at the hands of the Japanese military before and during World War II, such as China and South Korea, consider the shrine as an emblem of that aggressive period in Japanese history.

But China's representations failed to deter 168 Japanese members of parliament from visiting the shrine on Tuesday to pay their respects to the war dead, the most to do so in recent years.

How a remote rock split China and Japan

New men in charge

New leaders have taken office in both countries in the past few months: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan and President Xi Jinping in China. They inherited a highly delicate situation concerning the disputed islands that analysts have warned could spiral out of control -- a concern for the United States, which has a mutual security treaty with Japan.

"Despite expressions by both governments that they wish to avoid a war, potential for escalation has increased and there is deepening pessimism on both sides over the prospects of a peaceful settlement," the International Crisis Group said in a report this month on the tensions between Japan and China.

"Tokyo and Beijing urgently need to work toward establishing communication mechanisms and strengthening crisis mitigation in order to avoid a larger conflict," the report said.

READ: Avoiding a nightmare scenario

In an indication of the strong stances both sides are taking on the matter, Abe said Tuesday in parliament that any attempt to land on the islands by China would be repelled "by force."

Games of cat and mouse

The relationship between the two nations deteriorated severely in September, when the Japanese government bought several of the islands from a private owner, angering Chinese authorities and provoking a spate of sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in many Chinese cities.

Since then, the situation has calmed somewhat, but Chinese government ships have continued to frequently sail near the islands, engaging in maritime games of cat and mouse with Japanese Coast Guard vessels. Chinese planes have also flown through the area, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets.

Both countries claim sovereignty over the remote, rocky islands, which are near important shipping lanes, rich fishing grounds and possible mineral deposits.

Japan currently administers the area, but since September, China has mounted a concerted campaign to try to change the situation.

It says its ships that enter the waters around the islands are conducting routine patrols of Chinese territory. But Japan says they are intruding in its territorial waters.

In the repeated standoffs that result, both sides broadcast warnings to each other's vessels, ordering them to leave the area that they both claim.

Nationalists' publicity stunt

The Japanese nationalist group known as Ganbare Nippon this week sent 10 fishing boats carrying dozens of its members to the area around the islands.

A representative for the group, Yasushi Watanabe, said the voyage -- the third by Ganbare Nippon this year -- was aimed at publicizing Japan's territorial claim to the area, not at landing on the islands.

China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said Tuesday that three marine surveillance ships on "regular patrol duty" in the area noticed several Japanese ships near the islands, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.

The SOA said that it dispatched five more ships to join its three vessels near the islands. Together, the eight Chinese ships "monitored the Japanese ships from different angles," it said.

The Japanese Coast Guard said that its vessels had told the Chinese surveillance ships to leave the area, but that they had responded by saying that they were patrolling Chinese territory.

Ganbare Nippon later said its ships had all left the area around the islands.

The weight of history

The competing claims to the islands are intertwined with the region's complex history.

"Due to the brutal Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s, sentiments over the status of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands run deeper in the Chinese psyche than any other territorial dispute in modern Chinese history, with the exception of Taiwan," the International Crisis Group said in its report this month.

China says its sovereignty over the area extends back hundreds of years. Japan says it saw no trace of Chinese control of the islands in an 1885 survey, so formally recognized them as Japanese sovereign territory in 1895. Japan then sold the islands in 1932 to descendants of the original settlers. The Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945 only served to cloud the issue further.

The islands were administered by the U.S. occupation force after the war. But in 1972, Washington returned them to Japan as part of its withdrawal from Okinawa.

[American Patriot]

Wonder who's gonna blink first?

[Ryan Ruck]

China Military Planes Flew Close To Disputed Isles

April 27, 2013

Chinese military planes, mostly fighter jets, made more than 40 flights close to Tokyo-controlled islands at the centre of a territorial dispute on a single day this week, a press report said Saturday.

The flights took place on Tuesday, when eight Chinese marine surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile territorial zone off the islands in the East China Sea, which Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyus, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported.

The conservative daily, citing senior government officials, said F-15 fighter planes from an airbase on the Japanese island of Okinawa scrambled to intercept the Chinese aircraft which flew in waves towards the skies over the islands.

"It was an unprecedented threat," one of the officials was quoted as saying.

Another said: "If such a show of force continues, it is feared it could lead to a situation where the (Japanese) air defence force may not be able to cope."

The report said the military planes included updated Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighter aircraft.

The report, which did not say whether the planes intruded into Japan's airspace, could not be immediately confirmed by Japan's Defence Ministry.

Chinese government ships have frequently sailed around the five Tokyo-controlled islands in recent months sparking diplomatic clashes.

But Tuesday's flotilla was the biggest to sail into the disputed waters in a single day since Tokyo nationalised part of the island chain in September.

On December 13, a Y-12 turbo-prop plane from China's State Oceanic Administration breached airspace over the disputed islands, prompting the launch of Japanese F-15s.

It was the first known incursion ever by a Chinese plane into Japanese airspace, the government said at the time.

[Ryan Ruck]

Japan Scrambles Jets After China's Flyover Near Southern Islands

July 25, 2013

Japan scrambled fighter jets Wednesday in response to a Chinese military flyover through international airspace in close proximity to its southern islands.

Japanese officials viewed the flyover as an expression of China's push for maritime expansion in the region.

According to Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, on Tuesday around noon, a Chinese Y-8 early warning plane flew over the main island of Okinawa and the smaller Miyako island in southern Japan.

The aircraft later took the same route back over the East China Sea, Reuters reported.

"I believe this indicates China's move toward further maritime expansion," Onodera told reporters in comments carried on public broadcaster NHK.

Chinese officials have yet to comment on the incident.

Relations between the Asian nations have been strained due to a territorial dispute over an uninhabited group of small islands located just northeast of Taiwan, which are controlled by Japan.

China has disputed Japan's sovereignty over the islands, which are referred to in China as the Diaoyudao Islands and in Japan as the Senkaku Islands.

Japan has controlled the islands since 1895 through the end of World War II, at which point the U.S. gained control over them until the islands were given back to Japan in 1972.

China, meanwhile, claims to have discovered and controlled the islands since the 14th century.

The islands are known for their rich fishing grounds and are believed to contain large oil and gas reserves in the surrounding sea floor.

Last September, tension escalated between China and the land of the rising sun when the Japanese government purchased three of the disputed islands from a private Japanese owner, Reuters reported.

Since the incident, both nations have been monitoring one another closely, patrolling ships and aircraft in the seas and skies around the islets, giving way to concerns that an unintended collision could occur and lead to a more substantial clash between China and Japan.

After winning a decisive victory in Japan's upper house elections on Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to take a firm stance on the territorial dispute and said he was open to dialogue during the news conference following his election win.

[Ryan Ruck]

China Tests Japan on Island Claims After Philippine Success

August 8, 2013

China deployed ships to waters near islands disputed with Japan for a record 28 hours, drawing a formal protest as it repeated a strategy of pressing its territorial claims through bolder projections of maritime power.

Ships from China’s newly formed coast guard remained in the Japanese-controlled waters for the longest time since Japan bought the islands last year, Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a briefing in Tokyo today. Japan’s Foreign Ministry summoned a Chinese diplomat and “sternly protested,” he said

The Chinese deployment mirrors an approach it has taken to press its sovereignty claim in a dispute with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. The moves come as China expands its defense spending and President Xi Jinping seeks to make China a maritime power in the region.

“It’s very similar,” said Chiaki Akimoto, director of the Tokyo bureau of the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, referring to China’s actions toward Japan and the Philippines. “The idea is to escalate little by little. At the same time, they want to see how Japan reacts.”

In June, the Philippines protested what it called “the massive presence of Chinese military and paramilitary ships” around territory it claims in the South China Sea. The Philippines asked the United Nations in January to rule on its dispute with China, which moved to take control of the Scarborough Shoal a year after a standoff between Philippine and Chinese ships.

28 Hours

Four Chinese Coast Guard ships spent about 28 hours in Japanese-controlled waters around the islands, part of the time remaining stationary within 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of Minami Kojima island, according to e-mailed statements from the Japanese Coast Guard. The ships left the waters around the islands, known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, at about noon today.

“It is clear that the Senkaku Islands are Japan’s territory, in terms of history and international law,” Suga said today. “This incursion into our territorial waters is the longest since our government bought the islands in September. It is extremely regrettable and we cannot accept it.”

The Chinese ships forced out Japanese “right-wingers” from waters around the disputed islands, the Chinese embassy in Japan said in a statement on its website today. The charge d’affaires filed a diplomatic protest today over the incident and requested that the Japanese ships immediately leave the territory and prevent any future incidents, it said.

The escalation comes days before the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan’s World War II defeat, a sensitive occasion among Asian nations invaded and occupied by the country in the first half of the 20th century.

Ruling Party

Politicians from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party may visit the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal. Abe will stay away on the anniversary to avoid raising hackles in China and South Korea, the Nikkei newspaper reported today.

Relations between Japan and China have deteriorated since the Japanese government purchased three of the five islands from their private owner, hurting trade ties between Asia’s two largest economies. Trade data released today showed that China’s exports to Japan fell 2 percent from a year earlier in July, the sixth straight decline.

Since last September, China has regularly sent ships into the waters off the islands. In December, a Chinese marine surveillance propeller plane was spotted for the first time in Japanese-controlled airspace near the islands. Last month, Japan confirmed that Chinese ships passed through a strait just north of its territory for the first time.

China’s Claim

The latest moves are aimed at forcing Japan to recognize China’s claim to the islands, which the government in Tokyo has so far refused to do, according to analysts including Taylor Fravel, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Like Scarborough, China is trying to create a new status quo,” Fravel said in an e-mail. “Unlike Scarborough, however, China is seeking to demonstrate that it rejects Japan’s exclusive control of the islands, not gain effective control over them.”

Xi said earlier this month that China must improve its ability to safeguard its maritime rights while settling disagreements peacefully. “In no way will the country abandon its legitimate rights and interests,” Xi said.

The Chinese action around the islands comes two days after Japan unveiled the largest military ship it has produced since World War II. Yesterday, China’s Defense Ministry said Asian neighbors must be alert to Japan’s defense buildup after it unveiled the ship.

China is expanding its military as well. The government plans to boost military spending by 10.7 percent this year, and commissioned its first aircraft carrier last year.

[American Patriot]

China in talks for more Russian arms as Japan tensions rise


Standard

In the midst of heightening tensions with Japan over the disputed Diaoyutai islands (called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China), China is still negotiating with Russia to import more advanced weapon systems with which to equip its air force and navy, writes Vasiliy Kashin from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in an article for the Moscow-based Military-Industrial Courier.Although the Russian defense industry no longer relies completely on Beijing to survive like it did during the early 1990s, Kashin said that China is still the second largest market for Russian-built weapons systems after India. In 2011, Russia sold weapon systems worth of US$1.9 billion to China. Rosoboronexport, the state intermediary agency for Russia’s exports and imports of defense-related and products, stated that this increased to more than US$2.1 billion in the year 2012.


For full report read… http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-s...00025&cid=1101

[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.

[American Patriot]

February 7, 2014

Beijing denounces ‘groundless’ US remarks on South China Sea ^Reply

Escalation / Destabilization Conflict • Tags: Air Defense Identification Zone, Asia, Beijing, China, Hong Lei, Philippines, South China Sea, United States

- Beijing claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety, even areas a long way from its shoreline, but portions are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.









AFP

Friday, Feb 07, 2014



BEIJING – Beijing on Friday dismissed a US official’s warning against possible Chinese expansion in the skies over the South China Sea, calling the remarks “irresponsible”.


The United States had urged Beijing to clarify or adjust its claims in the South China Sea, calling for a peaceful solution to one of Asia’s growing flashpoints.


“Some US officials make groundless accusations against China,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular briefing. He added that “right-wing forces in Japan” were responsible for stirring up “rumours” on the issue.


Hong was responding to comments made on Wednesday by the top US diplomat for the region, Danny Russel, warning Beijing not to move to impose an air zone over the territory.


Beijing claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety, even areas a long way from its shoreline, but portions are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.


Russel supported the Philippines’ right to take its case to a United Nations tribunal – a move last year that was denounced by China – as part of efforts to find a “peaceful, non-coercive” solution.


“China’s lack of clarity with regard to its South China Sea claims has created uncertainty in the region and limits the prospect for achieving mutually agreeable resolution or equitable joint development arrangements,” Russel told a congressional committee.


Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, citing Chinese government sources, recently reported that Beijing had drafted proposals for the new air zone, with tensions already high over its imposition of an air zone above islands administered by Japan in the East China Sea.


That Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ), set up in November, immediately drew condemnation from Washington as well as Tokyo, with which China is embroiled in a separate territorial row.


“We neither recognize nor accept China’s declared ADIZ,” Russel, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the committee.


He added that the US had “made clear to China that it shouldn’t attempt to implement that ADIZ and should refrain from taking similar actions elsewhere in the region”.


Hong on Friday reiterated Beijing’s position that “as a sovereign state, China has the right to act” in order to defend its air security. “No country has the right to make irresponsible remarks on that,” he said of Russel’s comments.

[Ryan Ruck]

US Blames China For Rising Tensions In South China Sea

February 9, 2014

The Obama administration has significantly sharpened its rhetoric about China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea over the past week amid growing pressure from allies in the region for Washington to take a firmer line.

In public statements in recent days, senior US officials placed the blame for tensions in the region solely on China and warned that the US could move more forces to the western Pacific if Beijing were to declare a new air defence zone in the South China Sea.

Although President Barack Obama is due to visit the region in April, several Asia governments have complained privately that the administration has become distracted in the Middle East and has left the way open for China to pursue its claims with greater confidence.

“They [the administration] are definitely trying to turn up the volume about China,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. “This is as close as the Obama administration has come to saying that the nine-dash line is illegal. It is quite significant because they previously danced around the issue.” The nine-dash line is a map produced by China which appears to claim that the bulk of the South China Sea is under Chinese control.

China is involved in a series of increasingly tense territorial disputes in the East China Sea with Japan and in the South China Sea with Vietnam and the Philippines. The US, along with several other governments in the region, believes that China is pushing these claims as part of a broader strategy to exert greater control over large areas of the western Pacific.

“There are growing concerns that this pattern of behaviour in the South China Sea reflects incremental effort by China to assert control over the area,” Danny Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia said last week at a hearing. China had “created uncertainty, insecurity and instability in the region”. Mr Russel urged China to “clarify or adjust its nine-dash line claim to bring it in accordance with the international law of the sea”.

In a separate statement, Evan Medeiros, the Asia director at the White House national security council, warned China against declaring an air defence identification zone for the South China Sea, following its announcement in December of new rules for airspace in the East China Sea.

“We have been very clear with the Chinese that we would see that [the establishment of a new air zone] as a provocative and destabilising development that would result in changes in our presence and military posture in the region,” Mr Medeiros told Kyodo, the Japanese news agency.

Speaking at a congressional hearing, Mr Russel made a series of statements that represent a hardening of the US position over the various territorial disputes. While the US claims to be neutral on the territorial disputes, he said that China was responsible for the increased tension in the region.

Mr Russel said that any claims to the seas must be based on genuine land features, rather than just rocks that can be covered at high tide. Under the UN convention on the law of the sea, a country can claim a 200km economic zone around islands. Mr Russel also endorsed the effort by the Philippines to take its territorial dispute with China to an international court, part of its efforts to find a “peaceful, non-coercive” solution.

One of the difficulties for the Obama administration is that while it bases some of its arguments on the UN convention on the law of the sea, the US Senate has refused to ratify the same treaty.

[American Patriot]

Your fault.

No YOURS.

No, YOURS!

LOL

The world is run by completely incompetent imbeciles. From China to Russia to the USA. Marxists morons, all.

[vector7]

Japanese strategist says Obama's power is waning in Asia

• Staff Reporter
• 2014-05-02
• 10:00 (GMT+8)

Kenichi Ohmae makes a speech at a conference held on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce in Taipei, Sept. 25, 2009. (File photo/Chen Chen-tang)

Japanese business strategist Kenichi Ohmae said on April 29 that Taiwan may not benefit much from US president Barack Obama's rebalancing strategy in the Asia-Pacific as Obama has less than two years left in office, and that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could be a disaster.

Japan, Australia and the Philippines will welcome Obama's "Asia Pivot" because they need to shore up their defense against China, Ohmae said. He said, however, that for the Obama administration, the real problems are Iran, Ukraine and Russia, adding that Obama's recent trips to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia had not had any substantial effect on the region.

Ohmae also said that the TPP could be a disaster because all of the TPP negotiations between the United States and Japan are confidential. Obama did not sign any agreement with the Japanese government during his trip, making him the first US president to visit Japan without signing any agreement with the Japanese government.

The Japanese business strategist said that China's economy has grown by 30% every year in the past but the major challenges for Chinese president Xi Jinping will be the poverty gap in the country.

References: Xi Jinping 習近平

[American Patriot]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/interna...ref=sliderNews

Updated: November 24, 2014 18:45 IST
China, US exchange barbs over Spratly reef

Atul Aneja Comment · print · T T



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China and the United States have commenced a new war of words — this time over construction of an artificial island by Beijing in the tension-prone Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
Luo Yuan, a Major General in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) slammed Washington for being “obviously biased” by singling out China for construction work at the Yongfu Reef, also called Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly islands.
Gen. Luo was referring to a statement on Friday by a U.S. military spokesman, who urged China to “stop its land reclamation programme, and engage in diplomatic initiatives to encourage all sides to restrain themselves in these sorts of activities”.
The U.S. exhortations followed publication of satellite imagery by the publication IHS Jane's of the construction by China of an artificial island—3000 meters long and 200-300 meters wide---which was good enough for staging military aircraft.
But Gen.Luo pointed out that the US was deliberately ignoring Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, which have their own territorial claims and have already set up military facilities in the islands.
In fact, the Chinese point out that they have been latecomers in establishing their military presence in the Spratly islands, which have been claimed by Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Brunei. The IHS Jane’s article acknowledges that China has been at a distinct disadvantage compared with other claimants in the Spratly Islands as it is the only claimant not to occupy an island with an airfield. It points out that Taiwan has Itu Aba (Taiping) island, the Philippines has Pagasa island, Malaysia has Swallow Reef (a reef on which it reclaimed land and built an airstrip), and Vietnam has Southwest Cay.
Jin Zhirui, a senior officer from the Chinese Air Force Headquarters told foreign media on the sidelines of a recent international security conference that China now needs a base in the Spratly islands to “support our radar system and intelligence-gathering activities". He added that although “there are 50 islands and reefs in the Nansha (Spratley) islands, those belonging to China are the fewest in number, and China was the last to make advances there".
The officer also stated that the recent search for the survivors of the Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing in March 2014 had made it clear that “we (China) lacked sufficient air force capabilities in the South China Sea".
An editorial in the Global Times observed that, “China's policies on the South China Sea will remain pragmatic,” but hoped that “the U.S. will stay calm and strike a balance when dealing with China over the South China Sea disputes”.