China ships in disputed waters after Japanese PM's WWI claim
27 January 2014, 18:52
Chinese ships sailed through disputed waters off Tokyo-controlled islands on Monday, days after Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused an international stir by comparing Sino-Japanese relations with the run-up to World War One.
Three Chinese coastguard vessels spent around two hours in the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters off one of the Senkakus, which China claims and calls the Diaoyus, Japan's coastguard said.
China's State Oceanic Adminstration said three China Coast Guard vessels 'continued their patrol in the territorial waters around Diaoyu Islands' on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The latest patrol came as Abe was in New Delhi, where he and Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh affirmed plans to strengthen defence cooperation, including conducting joint maritime exercises on a 'regular basis with increased frequency'.
His three-day visit to India is being keenly watched by China, analysts say. Beijing is sometimes uneasy about what it sees as an attempt by Japan to encircle it.
Beijing also has an often fractious relationship with Delhi, partly because of a border dispute that erupted into a brief war in 1962. India is keen to burnish friendships in the region to offset its neighbour's growing might.
Abe was in Delhi days after he drew a comparison between Japan and China's relations and those of Britain and Germany as they stumbled towards World War One.
For its part, Beijing has sought to conjure the spectre of Nazism by urging Abe to emulate Germany's post-war contrition.
Chinese state-owned ships and aircraft have approached the Senkakus on and off to demonstrate Beijing's territorial claims, especially after Japan nationalised some of the islands in September 2012.
China plans new patrol in disputed South China Sea - reports
China will set up new civilian patrols with a 5,000-tonne vessel in the disputed South China Sea, state-run media said on Tuesday. Beijing claims much of the waters and has put a vast swathe of it under the administration of Sansha city, in the contested Paracel islands, which also hosts a military garrison.
Local authorities will 'provide a 5,000-tonne patrol vessel at Sansha and gradually set up a system of three regular patrols', China Ocean News reported, citing an agreement between the city and the island province of Hainan, which oversees it.
The intent was to 'safeguard national sovereign rights and benefits, develop at-sea assistance, ensure navigational safety' among other reasons, the report said.
Even minor moves by China that appear to assert territorial claims can provoke a regional reaction, as the Asian giant is engaged in disputes with several neighbours, including an escalating row with Japan over islands in the East China Sea which has raised fears of unintended conflict.
Portions of the South China Sea are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Earlier this month both the US and Philippines criticised a law approved in Hainan in November reaffirming an existing requirement that foreign fishing vessels obtain permission to enter its waters.
China also declared in November an Air Defense Identification Zone over parts of the East China Sea - including the islands disputed with Japan - provoking vehement condemnation from Tokyo and Washington.
Aircraft entering the zone were required to identify themselves and maintain communication with Chinese authorities.
China building second aircraft carrier - reports
China is building its second aircraft carrier, which is expected to take six years, and the country aims to have at least four such ships, Chinese and Hong Kong media reports said on Sunday.
After two decades of double-digit increases in the military budget, China's admirals plan to develop a full blue-water navy capable of defending growing economic interests as well as disputed territory in the South and East China Seas.
The country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning - a Soviet-era ship bought from Ukraine in 1998 and re-fitted in a Chinese shipyard - has long been a symbol of China's naval build-up.
Successfully operating the 60,000-tonne Liaoning is the first step in what state media and some military experts believe will be the deployment of locally built carriers by 2020.
In comments carried on Chinese news websites, Wang Min, the Communist Party boss of the northeastern province of Liaoning, where the first carrier is based, said the second carrier was being built in the port city of Dalian.
Its construction would take about six years, and in future China would have a fleet of at least four carriers, Wang told members of the province's legislature on Saturday, the reports added.
Dalian is the port where the existing carrier was re-fitted for use by the Chinese navy.
Some of the reports about the new carrier were apparently latter removed from the Internet, as links to the stories did not work.
Voice of Russia, AFP
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