China’s increasingly dangerous provocation

How far does China intend to escalate tensions with Japan? China’s latest behaviour around Japanese territorial waters cannot be overlooked. A Chinese Navy frigate sailed for about 2 hours and 20 minutes in the contiguous zone just outside Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture before dawn Thursday. The Chinese warship navigated the contiguous zone in defiance of a warning by the Maritime Self-Defence Force.
China’s intrusions into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkakus have been made repeatedly by its coast guard vessels. This is the first time a Chinese naval vessel has entered the contiguous zone... China’s provocative actions have entered a new phase.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denounced China’s action, saying, “It was an action that unilaterally heightens tensions, and we are deeply concerned about it.” Suga stressed Japan’s sovereignty over the islands: “The Senkaku Islands are an inherent territory of Japan both historically and under international law.” Immediately after the incident, Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki summoned Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua to the Foreign Ministry and lodged a stern protest against the Chinese action. Saiki’s action was natural.
Three Russian Navy vessels also sailed in the contiguous zone around the same time as the Chinese warship. An MSDF destroyer shadowed the Russian vessels. The Chinese side may have taken advantage of this.
Foreign naval vessels are
permitted to sail in a contiguous zone under international law. Japan took necessary precautions against Russia, but the intentions behind having military vessels enter the contiguous zone need to be analysed.
The government has decided on a policy to order the Self-Defence Forces to engage in maritime security operations and dispatch MSDF vessels in the event of a Chinese naval vessel entering waters near the Senkakus.
In close cooperation with the US and other countries, Japan must take all necessary steps in its patrol and surveillance activities. It is also imperative to deal with “grey-zone contingencies”, which stop short of a military attack, such as an armed fishing boat approaching the Senkakus.
China’s Defence Ministry defended its ship’s entry into the contiguous zone, insisting that “it is legal for its military vessels to sail in waters under its jurisdiction and other countries have no right to complain about it.” This is a totally unreasonable argument.
Two days ago, a Chinese fighter jet engaged in an “unsafe excessive rate of closure” on a US reconnaissance plane on a routine patrol in international airspace over the East China Sea.
On such occasions as the recent Ise-Shima summit of the Group of Seven major countries and the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, Tokyo and Washington called for “freedom of navigation”, thereby ramping up pressure on China. China is strongly opposed to this and is believed to have issued “warnings” to the two countries through its provocative actions.
Behind the dispatch of a naval ship into seas near the Senkakus lies the state’s intention to establish naval and air supremacy in the East China Sea with an eye to expanding its maritime activity to the western Pacific Ocean.
To prevent an accidental clash between Japan and China, the Xi administration must accelerate efforts to conclude an agreement with Japan on a bilateral “maritime liaison mechanism”.