The foreign ministers of China, Japan, and South Korea are looking to schedule a meeting in Japan next week, the first time Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will have visited Japan and first such visit since Xi Jinping became president.
The Chinese government took a respite from its criticism of Japan for denying its unilateral claims over disputed territories of the East China Sea to thank Japanese rescuers for saving six Chinese sailors whose ship capsized near the Senkaku Islands.
Japan filed a protest against China over the weekend, as six Chinese coast guard ships were spotted among a fleet of over 200 fishing boats in the disputed Senkaku Islands.
Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki summoned China’s ambassador to Japan early Thursday morning to lodge a protest against the passage of a Chinese navy ship through the contiguous zone near the Senkaku Islands, a Japanese territory over which China claims sovereignty.
A report in the South China Morning Post cites Chinese sources as stating that Beijing is preparing to impose an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea, which would require all aircraft to allow China to track their movements in the region, even over the sovereign territory of other nations.
Contents: China close to deploying very long range DF-41 missile; China-US differences sharpen over South China Sea
Legislators in Japan’s Ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are urging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to bring a case against China to an international tribunal to settle once and for all ownership over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
In a joint statement, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his counterpart President Taur Matan Ruak of East Timor noted their “serious concern” that the Chinese government is expanding its control over disputed territory in the South China Sea too aggressively.
The Chinese navy is sending an advance missile frigate into the East China Sea, risking exacerbating tensions in waters it claims against Japan. The move follows a week in which the international community has condemned China’s illegal development of military facilities in the South China Sea.
On the day after Christmas, three Chinese boats, one modified to carry four cannons, entered Japan’s territorial waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands in the southern portion of the East China Sea. The move, a dangerous escalation, is the first time the People’s Republic of China sent an armed vessel into an area that Tokyo claims as its own.
Japan is alleging that an armed Chinese vessel violated its sovereign waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands on Saturday, lodging a formal protest with the Chinese government.
As the United States takes the lead in challenging China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, the Chinese government has begun to warn off Japan from assuming a role in the matter. While Japan has no territorial interests in the South China Sea, it continues to disregard China’s claim to the entirety of the East China Sea, much of which Japan claims as its own.
China is calling Japan’s photos of Chinese construction near disputed waters a “provocation.” In 2008, China and Japan agreed to jointly develop natural resources in a disputed part of the East China Sea. Now, however, the countries are still bickering over development rights.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino is set to land in Japan on Tuesday following initial negotiations for new weapons trade deals and closer military ties. Observers see the move as a preventative measure in the face of China’s expanded efforts in disputed South China Sea territory to build military facilities and artificial islands, violating international law.
Tensions are rising in the South China Sea as American officials have become increasingly vocal regarding their opposition to China’s development of islands over which Vietnam and the Philippines contend China has no sovereignty. In a scathing opinion piece in state media Friday, China has responded by telling American officials to stay out of Asian affairs.
