Chinese Spy Ship Operating in Japanese Waters

Gabriel Dominguez and Chieko Tsuneoka

June 16, 2016

Chinese spy ship enters Japanese territorial waters

A Chinese naval intelligence ship briefly entered Japan’s territorial waters in the early hours of 15 June, according to Japanese officials. Source: Japan MoD

A Chinese naval intelligence ship temporarily entered Japan’s territorial waters in the early hours of 15 June, Japanese officials said. This is the first time a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessel has been confirmed as entering Japan’s 12 n mile territorial seas since a Han-class nuclear-powered attack submarine entered Japanese waters off Ishigaki Island in 2004.

A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft spotted the PLAN vessel - identified as a Type 815 Dongdiao-class intelligence ship - west of Kuchinoerabu Island in southern Japan at around 0330 h local time, said officials at Japan’s Ministry of Defense.

The vessel later moved southeast and left Japanese waters off Yakushima island 90 minutes later, at about 0500 h. Tokyo did not say by how far the PLAN ship had breached its territorial waters.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko told a news conference that while he would refrain from commenting on the purpose of the Chinese vessel, an official from the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau had expressed concern to an assistant ambassador of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo about China’s general naval activity.

“The government will continue to take all possible measures for warning and surveillance activity for our territorial waters and airspace,” Seko said.

The incident took place as Japan was conducting joint naval drills with the United States and India in waters close to the South China Sea (SCS), large parts of which are claimed by China. Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters that the Chinese spy ship was also sailing behind two Indian naval vessels that were participating in this year’s ‘Malabar’ exercise in the waters nearby.

Nakatani stressed that Tokyo was rushing to analyse whether the PLAN vessel was simply conducting “innocent passage”, meaning in this case that the ship was not collecting intelligence.