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U.S. Warns China Over East China Sea Maritime Grab
Chinese Internet
BY: Bill Gertz
The Pentagon invoked a U.S. defense treaty with Japan and warned China on Saturday that its declaration of an air defense zone over the East China Sea is increasing the danger of military conflict.
Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued statements late Saturday expressing “deep concern” over China’s creation of the air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, that extends over Japan’s Senkaku Islands, which China claims as its territory.
“We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region,” Hagel said. “This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.”
Hagel then reaffirmed the U.S. military commitment to the 1952 U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty.
“The United States reaffirms its longstanding policy that Article V of the U.S. Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands,” Hagel said.
A reference to the defense treaty is the clearest sign that the Pentagon fears China will use the creation of a new air defense zone to block U.S. and Japanese aircraft or ships from passing through the zone that includes large areas of international waters.
Such actions could set off the use of force and a Read more…
Troubling signs of the rise of Chinese ultra-nationalists
A still from “Glorious Mission”, a video game created by the Chinese government.
The recent Japanese protest that Chinese warships recently locked their weapons-control radars on to a Japanese navy destroyer and a military helicopter in two separate incidents not far from the bitterly disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea raises disturbing questions.
One is the extent to which effective civilian control is being exercised over the armed forces in China. If the military, or rogue ultra-nationalist officers, call the shots in a crisis that potentially involves not just Japan but also its ally, the United States, it could trigger a wider war that would destabilise the Asia-Pacific region.
After several days of silence, China’s Defence Ministry posted a denial on its website on Friday. It said that the radars on the frigates ”kept normal observation and were on alert”, but in neither case were fire-control radars used.
Japan rejected the account and said that it was considering releasing data that would prove the fire-control radar was directed at its destroyer.
Japan’s Defence Minister, Itsunori Onodera, had earlier warned China it may have violated Read more…
China Silent on Status of Ships Sent to Japanese-Controlled Islands
The status of two Chinese government ships sent to assert Beijing’s claim over Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea remained a mystery early Wednesday, with no word from either government on the ships’ whereabouts.
China’s official news agency Xinhua reported that the two China Marine Surveillance ships “reached the waters around” the disputed islands Tuesday morning. It said the Chinese agency in charge of the vessels had a plan to safeguard Chinese sovereignty and would “take actions pending the development of the situation.” Since then, Chinese state media have been silent on the ships’ movements.
Japanese officials also had no comment on the status of the Chinese government ships. Japan’s coast guard has confronted Chinese fisherman and nationalists in the waters of the archipelago several times in recent years. It was not clear if Japanese authorities were taking similar action this time.
Japan refers to the disputed islands as Senkaku, while China calls them Diaoyu. The waters around the islands contain Read more…
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