China warship off disputed islands, Japan protests to China

A Chinese navy frigate sailed into the so-called contiguous zone outside Japanese-administered waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Thursday, the first time Beijing has deployed the military to press its territorial claim, the Japanese Defence Ministry said.

The Chinese frigate, a Jiangkai-1 class modern frigate armed with sea-skimming anti-ship missiles and short-range air defence missiles sailed to within 24 miles of the disputed islands of Senkaku, shortly after midnight.

Japan and Russian Federation have a separate territorial dispute over the sovereignty of the Kuril Islands, which are located off the northern coast of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, far away from the East China Sea.

An anti-Japan protester outside the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong in 2012, after Chinese activists were detained for landing on one of the disputed East China Sea islands.

Three Russian battleships also came provocatively close to what Japan considers its territory around that time, the ministry said.

Japan said it is investigating the movements of both countries’ vessels, looking to see if the actions were linked. The importance of the islands lies in their proximity to key shipping lanes and potential oil and gas reserves, as well as an abundance of rich fishing grounds. “No other country has the right to make thoughtless remarks about this”, it said in a statement sent to Reuters.

Reacting to the incident, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed “serious concern” at a news conference, saying it would escalate tensions. They are controlled by Japan, but China as well as Taiwan claim them. The ships did not pass through Japanese sovereign territory but were close enough to raise alarm in the context of China’s maritime belligerence in the past decade.

While Chinese patrol vessels are often spotted close to or have even entered waters which Japan considers its own.

China has said it doesn’t recognize the jurisdiction of the Hague tribunal and won’t abide by an unfavorable ruling.

“There’s no need for China to exacerbate the problem over the East China Sea now”, Kayahara said. However, over the past 12 months tensions had eased as both Tokyo and Beijing focused on repairing the economic relationship and avoiding confrontation in the East China Sea. At the same time, the Philippines brought a case against China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, to test its claim over much of the sea.

“[The Chinese Navy vessel’s entry into the contiguous zone] is an action that unilaterally heightens tensions and we are deeply concerned about it”, Suga said.

On the sidelines of the Shangri-la dialogue in Singapore on Friday, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his Indian counterpart, Manohar Parrikar, agreed to boost trilateral cooperation with the USA amid China’s growing assertiveness in the region, Kyodo News reported.

Energy Information Administration data showed US crude oil inventories fell for the third consecutive week but gasoline and distillate stockpiles rose as refiners ramped up output.

Meanwhile, Japan, the United States and India are readying themselves for major joint naval exercise, dubbed Malabar, from Friday in the nearby Western Pacific.