Japan wants to react “resolutely”: For the first time in four years, a Chinese Navy ship has been sighted in the area of the disputed Senkaku Islands.
Munich/Tokyo/Beijing – Japan speaks of a “very worrying situation”: On Monday morning, a Chinese frigate and a Russian warship were sighted off the coast of the Senkaku Islands, the government in Tokyo announced. The archipelago in the East China Sea is controlled by Japan, but also claimed by China.
In Chinese, the uninhabited islands are called “Diaoyu”. “We have expressed serious concerns and lodged a protest with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels, asking them to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” Japanese Deputy Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said. The islands are “Japanese territory both from a historical and from an international law point of view”. Japan will respond “firmly but calmly” to similar moves, Kihara said.
Russian ship enters Japanese waters – Chinese ship pursues
Japanese media, citing the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo, reported that the Russian ship initially entered Japanese waters, apparently to seek protection from a typhoon. It was pursued by the Chinese ship. A spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Defense suggested that the Chinese ship wanted to appear as if it were patrolling its own territory to demonstrate Beijing’s territorial claim to the Senkaku Islands.
According to the spokesman, the procedure “unilaterally increased tension”. Monday’s incident is the first time a Chinese Navy ship has been sighted near the Senkaku Islands since 2018, Japanese television broadcaster NHK reported. Coast Guard vessels, on the other hand, are observed more frequently in the area. Japan had recently demonstrated against China’s exploration of a possible gas field near the islands.
China claims disputed islands: ‘Diaoyu Islands are China’s very own territory’
In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry rejected the allegations. “The Diaoyu Islands and its sub-islands are China’s very own territory,” said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. “China’s ships are lawfully operating in the nearby waters, so Japan has no right to say anything.” When asked by a Japanese journalist whether it was a joint operation between Russia and China, Zhao said, “It is your personal Interpretation.”
Tensions have recently increased elsewhere in the region. In late June, three Chinese warships were sighted navigating an unusual route south-east of Japan’s Chiba Prefecture – just days after seven Russian ships transited nearby waters. In October 2021, ten Russian and Chinese ships circumnavigated Japan together. There have also been repeated incidents in the air in the area. In May, for example, Japan sent several fighter jets into the air to drive Chinese and Russian bombers out of waters near the island state.
![The Senkaku Islands from the air.](https://www.merkur.de/bilder/2022/07/04/91647504/29296942-china-japan-senkaku-diaoyu-OiBG.jpg)
China provokes Taiwan in the air – harbingers of an invasion?
In addition, Chinese provocations against Taiwan have increased since the beginning of the year. Beijing regards the democratically governed island state as part of its own national territory and is threatening to invade the country. Chinese fighter jets have invaded Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) more than 500 times since the beginning of the year, most recently in June.
The ADIZ is not the airspace over national territory and sovereign waters of a country, but denotes an airspace surveillance zone in which passing aircraft must identify themselves and regularly announce their coordinates. States use the ADIZ as a kind of buffer zone, but it is not protected as sovereign territory under international law. In the June incident, 29 Chinese jets entered Taiwan’s ADIZ, and in a similar incident in late May, 30 fighter jets.
In mid-June, the Chinese government also changed the language used in relation to the Taiwan Strait. The strait separates the People’s Republic of China from Taiwan. According to Beijing, the area is not “international waters”, but exclusively Chinese sea area; After all, Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic. Accordingly, there are no Taiwanese sovereign territories that could be violated. Observers suspect that the new language regulation could also serve to describe a possible invasion of Taiwan not as a war, but as a kind of military special operation.
China’s leader Xi Jinping recently approved new plans that would allow the country’s armed forces to conduct military operations abroad, provided the operations “are not war.” A definition that Beijing could also use in the event of an attack on Taiwan. (sh)
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