November 13, 2015
Japan spots Chinese spy ship near disputed islands
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan said on Friday (Nov 13) it was monitoring waters near islands disputed with China in the East China Sea after it spotted a naval intelligence ship from the country operating in a new area for the first time.
Japan’s Defence Ministry said late on Thursday that a P-3C patrol aircraft observed the Dongdiao-class intelligence vessel near territorial waters of the Islands that Japan administers and calls the Senkakus, but China claims as the Diaoyus.
The ship repeatedly moved back and forth in the area until Thursday evening before departing, never breaching Japan’s 12-nautical-mile territorial waters, the ministry statement said.
Japanese Defence Minister Nakatani called the ship’s moves “unusual” at a regular press conference Friday, saying it made “repeated eastward and westward moves in one day”.
The Defence Ministry will keep up monitoring of the Chinese navy and “make utmost efforts in patrolling the sea and air surrounding Japan”, General Nakatani said.
Japan and China have routinely butted heads over ownership of the uninhabited islets, as Chinese state ships - mostly coast guard - and aircraft have approached them on and off to back up Beijing’s claims and test Japan’s response.
Relations between Japan and China hit multi-year lows after the Japanese government in September 2012 moved to increase its formal control by nationalising some of the islands.
But China and Japan - Asia’s two-biggest economies, respectively - have taken steps to improve ties.
They issued carefully worded statements on the dispute ahead of a summit last year in Beijing between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The two sides basically acknowledged they had different views on tensions emanating from the issue but agreed on the need for keeping them under control.
Distrust, however, remains high as China is wary of moves by Mr Abe to raise Japan’s military profile while Tokyo frets about Beijing’s increasing regional and global assertiveness.
The latest move marked the first time a Chinese naval ship operated in the area between the disputed islands and the populated southern Japanese island of Miyako, a Defence Ministry spokesman earlier told AFP.
Gen Nakatani himself declined to comment on the ship’s aims but stressed that the Chinese military “is rapidly boosting their activities at sea and in the air”.
Japan assumes that China “will try to expand the area of its activities further in the future”, Gen Nakatani added.
The 6,000-tonne vessel is armed with one 37mm and two dual 14.5mm cannons, the ministry said, citing IHS consultancy group’s Jane’s Fighting Ships site.
The mass circulation Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported that Japan will strengthen border security as a result of the spotting.
Anonymous sources from the ministry told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper the Chinese ship may have been there on an intelligence mission ahead of a planned drill this month by Japan’s naval forces.
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