Latest news with #Senkakus
South China Morning Post
18-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Is China preparing to seize Diaoyu Islands? Japan ex-army chief warns of ‘absorption' plans
A former Japanese military chief has warned that Beijing's increasingly assertive moves around disputed islands in the East China Sea could be setting the stage for a Chinese landing operation. While analysts broadly agree that Beijing is seeking to expand control over the Diaoyu Islands , they differ on how close China might be to launching an outright takeover, with some warning of growing military preparations and others cautioning that a full-scale assault remains premature. In an interview with the conservative Sankei newspaper published on Monday, Kiyofumi Iwata, who previously served as the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force's chief of staff, said 'the next logical step would be a landing and absorption' of the islands, which are known as the Senkakus in Japan. The uninhabited islets, long a flashpoint in Sino-Japanese ties, are controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. A Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force surveillance plane flies over the disputed Diaoyu Islands. The islands, long a flashpoint in Sino-Japanese ties, are controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. Photo: AP Iwata pointed to China's growing maritime presence around the islands over the past two years, including the frequent entry of Chinese coastguard vessels into Japanese territorial waters.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Chinese aircraft carrier group enters waters near Japan's easternmost island for first time
A Chinese aircraft carrier group has entered an area of Japan's territorial waters for the first time, prompting concern in Tokyo over China's expanding naval reach. The Liaoning carrier, accompanied by two missile destroyers and a supply ship, entered Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on Saturday evening, Japan's defence ministry said, before exiting to conduct military drills. The chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, did not say if the government had lodged a formal protest, saying only that it had 'conveyed an appropriate message to the Chinese side'. 'We will do our utmost to perform our warning and surveillance duties at sea and in the air,' he added, according to the Kyodo news agency. The incursion into Pacific waters about 300km south-west of Minamitori island will add to concern in Tokyo and Washington about China's increasingly assertive naval and air activity in and around Japanese waters. The countries are embroiled in a longstanding territorial dispute over the Senkakus – uninhabited islets in the east China Sea that are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu. This is the first time, however, that a Chinese vessel has entered that part of Japan's EEZ – an area within 200 nautical miles (370km) of its coastline – a defence ministry spokesperson told Agence France-Presse. 'We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,' the spokesperson said. After leaving the EEZ, the Chinese carrier group conducted landing and take-off drills involving fighter jets and helicopters, the ministry said, adding that Japan had deployed a warship, Haguro, to monitor the situation. Minamitori, the easternmost point of the Japanese archipelago, is surrounded by large deposits of rare metals. Last year, experts from the Nippon Foundation and Tokyo University said about 200m tonnes of manganese nodules rich in rare metals existed on the seabed near the island. No civilians live on Minamitori, located about 1,900km south-east of Tokyo, but it hosts a small number of personnel from the meteorological agency, the self-defence forces and the coast guard. Saturday's incident was the latest in a series of incursions by Chinese vessels into Japanese waters. Last month, the Liaoning sailed between two southern islands inside a different region of Japan's EEZ. In September last year the same carrier group sailed between Yonaguni and Iriomote – two Japanese islands near Taiwan – and entered Japan's contiguous waters, an area up to 24 nautical miles from its coast. Japan's government condemned the move at the time as 'unacceptable' and voiced 'serious concerns' to Beijing.
