Japan protests China's vessels around disputed islands

[rooster59]

Japan protests China's vessels around disputed islands 

 

MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

 

TOKYO (AP) — Japan summoned Chinese diplomats Saturday to protest after six Chinese coast guard vessels approached disputed East China Sea islands accompanying a fleet of hundreds of Chinese fishing boats.

 

Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it filed the protest after the Japanese coast guard spotted the vessels Saturday along with a fleet of 230 Chinese fishing boats swarming around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. China also claims the islands, which it calls the Diaoyu.

 

Japan was demanding that the ships leave the area. Three of the Chinese coast guard vessels were armed with what appeared to be gun batteries, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

 

The Chinese fleet has not intruded in Japanese territorial waters so far, it said.

 

Asked about Japan's statement, China's Foreign Ministry reiterated its position that the islands are "China's inherent territory" and that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over them and their adjacent waters.

 

In a statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called on Japan to refrain from "any action that could lead to a tense or complicated situation."

 

China's increasingly assertive maritime activities in the East and South China seas have raised concerns and tensions in the region. Japan has joined the U.S., the Philippines and others in urging China to abide by international law after a U.N. arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Philippines in its maritime dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea.

 

China says it doesn't recognize the July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

 

Relations between Japan and China have been strained over wartime history, a sensitive topic for the region in times of war-end anniversaries during the summer.

 

China's coast guard vessels routinely sail around the islands, usually in pairs or up to four. Until now, only one of the vessels was armed.

 

Saturday's fleet size and equipment showed "an escalation of the situation that could heighten tensions in the waters," Japan's Foreign Ministry said, without elaborating on what might have caused the increase.

 

On Friday, Japan also protested after two Chinese coast guard ships entered the Japanese-claimed waters around the islands.

 

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-08-07

[craigt3365]

These guys are just being bullies with no respect for international laws.  If something happens because of this, it will be their fault.

[Aardvark]

They say they only want an area that rightfully belongs to them. Funny how they forget they walked in uninvited and set up two Stations in Antarctica on Australian Territory. And that's the other side of the World ....

[blazes]

(As of this moment) 47 replies to the Belgian machete topic.  2 replies to this topic, which is far more threatening to world peace than what the Moslems get up to in Europe.

[wwest5829]

A move at the UN Security Council will be blocked by China, perhaps supported by Russia. Where is the international flotilla of ships from all nations wanting to declare support for the Law of the Sea and stating firmly that China's unilateral claim will not be recognized. Non armed commercial ships, fine. But there should be a definite non military action taken. Same with ignoring China's unilateral demand for control of air space. Untenable and will only encourage China if no direct action is taken.

[blazes]

7 minutes ago, wwest5829 said:

A move at the UN Security Council will be blocked by China, perhaps supported by Russia. Where is the international flotilla of ships from all nations wanting to declare support for the Law of the Sea and stating firmly that China's unilateral claim will not be recognized. Non armed commercial ships, fine. But there should be a definite non military action taken. Same with ignoring China's unilateral demand for control of air space. Untenable and will only encourage China if no direct action is taken.

 

What you say reminds me of all the appeasement that went on in the 1930s to Hitler's demands.

[craigt3365]

2 hours ago, wwest5829 said:

A move at the UN Security Council will be blocked by China, perhaps supported by Russia. Where is the international flotilla of ships from all nations wanting to declare support for the Law of the Sea and stating firmly that China's unilateral claim will not be recognized. Non armed commercial ships, fine. But there should be a definite non military action taken. Same with ignoring China's unilateral demand for control of air space. Untenable and will only encourage China if no direct action is taken.

China and Russia also blocked international involvement in the Syrian mess.

[Publicus]

 

The Party Boyz in Beijing lost tremendous face on the ruling by the Tribunal over the SCS. Yet CCP know they can't do anything drastic there, such as move onto Scarborough Shoal and/or declare an Air Defense Identification Zone over some or all of the SCS (aka interception zone). That's the proverbial line in the shoal for Washington and CCP Boyz know they are not Syria and this is not the ME and its deserts. 

 

Japan is anyway enemy number one as CCP have taught everyone in China for generations. So its time for the CCP Boyz to test both the resolve of the Japanese and of Washington in the East Sea over more rocks, reefs, lagoons, islets and possibly islands. The Senkaku may or may not be islands under UNCLOS so a case would need to be brought to the PCA to find out, which neither side is about to do. (Very tiny islands if that's what they'd be.)

 

CCP started their aggressions in the East Sea against Japan in 2009 right after the Beijing Olympics (which convinced CCP they'd arrived so it was time to fan out). Fishing boats ramming, US and PLA Navy ships banging off one another, stalking undersea and on the surface. Japanese and CCP Coast Guards pushing fishermen militia and one another around on decks of ships using water cannons. It was quite a period of several years until late in 2013. USA finally made clear the Senkaku Islands were included in Japanese sovereignty when Washington returned Japan to its sovereignty after WW2. Washington had figured that might settle things down.

 

However...

 

That is when Beijing suddenly made the surprise announcement of an ADIZ over the entire disputed area. Beijing said ignoring and dishonoring the ADIZ would result in swift and certain punishment by its armed forces in defense of the homeland. Washington decided to call Beijing's bluff and a couple of days after flew two B-52 bombers into the Zone, unannounced and which ignored PLA Air Force demands to answer its calls to the planes, and PLA AF demands to leave the Zone immediately.

 

After that air forces of USA, Japan, S. Korea flew jet fighters through the zone regularly, to the point the ADIZ quickly became aerial swiss cheese. They fly sometimes all three in formation, or two of the three, or singularly, but the air forces of the three countries fly through the ADIZ at will. So CCP Boyz went south. Now however they're blocked in the SCS.

 

Round and round they go. It is no joke but it is futile and silly. PM Shinzo Abe just won a big victory in the upper house elections and he also appointed a new woman defense minister who makes Margaret Thatcher seem humble and timid, which Thatcher certainly was not. Things can get out of hand of course, so Abe can put this on her and Xi Jinping can put it off on some sap PLA general, or Navy brass hat or an Air Force one. After all, PLA et al belong to the Party which also owns the PRC state.

 

Xi Jinping has not declared an ADIZ over the SCS or any part(s) of it for the specific reason he found out in the East Sea ADIZ fiasco you do not make an assertion you cannot in fact back up.  Xi could not defend his ADIZ.

 

Xi's fishing boat fleets presently out in the East Sea are likely comprised of the civilian militia crews CCP has armed, trained, paid a king's ransom to do this in the SCS, but apparently the East Sea and Japan will do for now. The Japanese Coast Guard with all due respect is certainly not the US Navy in his face as in the SCS. (Militia fishing boats are fair game under the international laws of naval warfare.)

 

Not yet for the USN but it already had been up there before, from 2009-13 and Beijing had to end that escapade ever so quietly and with a whimper. Absurd way to try to save face actually.