Japan watching China's military closely

[Lankan Ranger]

Japan watching China's military closely

Japan said on Tuesday it would keep a close eye on Beijing's military build-up, following a US government report warning that China's rising defence power is changing East Asia's military balance.

The comment by Japan's defence ministry came after two incidents on the high seas in recent months in which Chinese naval helicopters buzzed Japanese destroyers watching their naval flotillas near Japanese islands.

"Studying the latest US report, Japan will keep paying attention to China's military trend as it will have a significant impact on security in the region, including Japan, and on the international community," a defence ministry spokeswoman said.

"China is activating its navy in the East China Sea and in the Pacific," the spokeswoman said.

She said the defence ministry believed Beijing was extending its activities far offshore with the aim of protecting its territory, preempting Taiwan's possible independence and safeguarding its economic sea lanes.

China considers Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1949, to be a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

The Pentagon on Monday said China's military buildup was "a major factor in changing East Asian military balances and could provide China with a force capable of conducting a range of military operations in Asia well beyond Taiwan".

In April, Tokyo protested after a Chinese naval helicopter made a close fly-by of one of its destroyers on the high seas off a southern Japanese island chain during exercises Japan considered provocative.

A similar incident took place near the Okinawan islands in the same month when 10 Chinese naval vessels, including two submarines, were seen sailing through international waters between Japan's southernmost islands.

In its annual report to Congress, the US Defence Department said that China was ramping up investment in an array of areas including nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.

The Pentagon paper estimated that China's overall military-related spending was more than $US150 billion ($A166.98 billion) in 2009, including areas that do not figure in the publicly released budget.

Japan watching China's military closely

 

[Tractor]

All neighber countries of China are watching China's military closely not for any other reasons but just because they are neighber.
It's interesting that the two opposite conutries of China Japan and Taiwan are
chinese character users.

 

[RAHUL INDIAN]

All neighber countries of China are watching China's military closely not for any other reasons but just because they are neighber.
It's interesting that the two opposite conutries of China Japan and Taiwan are
chinese character users.

what is it for...!!

 

[Chinaownseverything]

All neighber countries of China are watching China's military closely not for any other reasons but just because they are neighber.
It's interesting that the two opposite conutries of China Japan and Taiwan are
chinese character users.

Most of this conflict is over a island dispute, China wants the Senkaku islands returned to Taiwan

They are not watching China because of neighbor, they are worried about whether their navy will be able to hold these islands against Taiwan and China if they do decide to take by force

Senkaku Islands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* 1971: The Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) claim sovereignty
* 1978: The Japan Youth Association set up a lighthouse on the main island.
* 14 July 1996: The Japan Youth Association builds a 5 m high, solar-powered, aluminum lighthouse on another island.
* 14 September 1996: a US State Department spokesman referred to the US's neutral position on the Senkaku Islands issue.
* 26 September 1996: David Chan (陳毓&#31077, a Hong Kong protester, drowns near the islets, after leaping off one of the protest vessels with several companions with the object of symbolizing Chinese claim of sovereignty.
* 7 October 1996: Protesters plant the flags of the ROC and the PRC on the main island, but are later removed by the Japanese.
* 9 April 1999: US Ambassador to Japan Thomas S. Foley said "we are not, as far as I understand, taking a specific position in the dispute.... we do not assume that there will be any reason to engage the security treaty in any immediate sense."
* 20 April 2000: Senkaku Shinto shrine (尖閣神&#31038 was established on Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyudao.[34]
* April 2002: The Japanese government leased Uotsuri and other islands from their private owners.
* 24 March 2004: A group of Chinese activists from the PRC planned to stay on the Islands for three days. The seven people who landed on the islands were arrested by the Japanese for illegal entry. The Japanese Foreign Ministry forwarded a complaint to the PRC government, but the PRC in turn demanded the release of the activists. They were then sent to Japan and deported from there. Japan subsequently stated that it would prohibit anybody from landing on the islands without prior permission.
* 24 March 2004: Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman at the US State Department said "The U.S. does not take a position on the question of the ultimate sovereignty of the Senkaku Diaoyu Islands."
* February 2005: Japan planned to take ownership of a privately-owned lighthouse on Uotsuri, after it was offered to them by the owner, a fisherman living on Ishigaki, Okinawa. The lighthouse is expected to be managed by the Japanese Coast Guard.
* 23 April 2004: a member of a Japanese right-wing group rammed a bus into the Chinese consulate in Osaka, to protest Chinese claims.[35]
* July 2004: Japan started exploring for natural gas in what it considers its own exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea as a step to counter China's building of a natural gas complex nearby. Japan plans to survey a 30-kilometer-wide band stretching between latitudes 28 and 30 degrees North, just inside the border demarcated by Japan. China disputes Japan's rights to explore the area east of the median line between the two countries, which Japan has proposed as the demarcation line for their exclusive economic zones.[35]
* July 2004: a group of Chinese held a police-approved demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing afternoon to protest Japan's "illegal" oil exploration activities in a disputed area of the East China Sea. The protesters, organized by Beijing-based organization called the Patriots Alliance Network, shouted slogans for about an hour, during which two embassy staff members came out to take the group's written statement.[35]
* 10 February 2005: On Voice of America, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said that Japan's new assertiveness is in line with the desires of many Japanese politicians to take their country beyond its post-World War Two reliance on the United States. "It's a question of the evolution of Japanese thinking on its own. Japan has made it clear they want to resolve all of the territorial disputes by diplomatic means and that's certainly something that we agree with. Our kind of getting in the middle of it is probably not the most productive way to proceed."
* June 2005: The ROC dispatched a ROCN frigate into disputed waters (but did not go as far as the islands) after Taiwanese fishing vessels were harassed by Japanese patrol boats. The frigate, which was carrying Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng and ROC Defense Minister Lee Jye, was not challenged and returned to Taiwan without incident. Fisheries talks between Taipei and Tokyo were held in July, but did not cover sovereignty issues.
* 17 March 2006: Kyodo News reported the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, presented that he considered "the Islands as territory of Japan" in his talk in Tokyo.[36]
* 27 October 2006: A group of activists from Hong Kong, the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, including Tsang Kin Shing and several members of the April Fifth Action, approached the islands in order to show the support for Chinese claims to the Senkakus. They were stopped from landing on the islands by the Japan Coast Guard.[37] Later on, the PLAN conducted a military exercise in the area.[38]
* 16 April 2008: two PLAAF J-10A multirole fighter peremptorily intercepted a Japanese P-3C anti-submarine and reconnaissance airplane that was flying closely above the Senkaku Islands. The two J-10 fighters were suspected of protecting Chinese nuclear submarines that were operating in that area.
* 8 September 2008: Two Chinese coast guard vessels started routine patrol within 12 kilometres of Senkaku Islands in order to declare the Senkaku Islands as Chinese territory.
* 10 June 2008: The 270 ton sport fishing vessel Lien Ho of Taiwan suffered a collision with the Japanese patrol vessel Koshiki and subsequently sank while in the disputed territorial waters that have been claimed by Japan and Taiwan. The Taiwanese crew who were aboard the vessel claims that the larger Japanese frigate deliberately crashed into them; their assertions are backed up by recently released video footage.[39] While releasing the passengers, Japan initially detained the captain and sought reparations.[40][41] The captain has now been released and has returned to Taiwan. Liu Chao-shiuan, Premier of the Republic of China, has refused to rule out the use of force to defend the islands against Japanese advances.[42] The ROC government recalled its chief representative to Japan in protest.[43] On June 16, a boat carrying activists from Taiwan, defended by five Republic of China Coast Guard vessels, approached to within 0.4 nautical miles (740 m) of the main island, from which position they circumnavigated the island in an assertion of sovereignty of the islands. This demonstration has prompted Taiwanese politicians to cancel a planned trip on-board Republic of China Navy vessels to demonstrate sovereignty.[44] The Taiwanese vessels were followed by Japanese Coast Guard vessels, but no attempt was made to intercept them. On June 20, the de-facto Japanese ambassador to Taiwan apologized, in person, to the captain of the Taiwanese boat Lien Ho.[45]
* 20 February 2009: two Chinese PLAAF J-10A fighters intercepted three Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighters flying close to the Senkaku Islands, and locked their missiles onto the Japanese fighters. After a three minute stand-off, the Japanese fighters returned to Japanese air space. The Japanese government stated it was an act of provocation.

 

[no_name]

lol, I just thought of this,

last time a PLAN helicopter went up to 90 meters from a japanese surface ship, dunno if that is close enough.

 

[lcloo]

When was the last time Chinese invaded Japan? I simply can not recall.

 

[no_name]

They tried twice in Yuan dynasty, although admittly China was under mongol rule at the time

 

[CardSharp]

When was the last time Chinese invaded Japan? I simply can not recall.

We didn't but the Yuan under the Mongols tried.

 

[CardSharp]

They tried twice in Yuan dynasty, although admittly China was under mongol rule at the time

There's a popular theory, the reason why the divine wind sunk so many ships is because the Mongols appropriated shoddy river boats from Chinese peasants to make the dangerous crossing to Japan.

 

[Tractor]

Ignore Chinese invaded Japan.
Japan is a nation mainly carry on Chinese culture and many Chinese people immigrated to Japan according to historical documents and even more not recorded.

 

[Nomenclature]

Yeah, Japan was always a prime choice for Chinese exiles when the mainland was under foreign occupation. It happened with Yuan and again with Qing.

Japan was a major base of operation for anti-Qing revolutionaries too.

I don't buy the idea of Sino-Japanese rivalry and indeed chuckle every time I read an article in some Western newspaper referring to Japan as 'China's arch rival'.

 

[Tractor]

Yeah, Japan was always a prime choice for Chinese exiles when the mainland was under foreign occupation. It happened with Yuan and again with Qing.

Japan was a major base of operation for anti-Qing revolutionaries too.

I don't buy the idea of Sino-Japanese rivalry and indeed chuckle every time I read an article in some Western newspaper referring to Japan as 'China's arch rival'.

Further more Japan was
In late 1920 era Sino-Russian border was in tense situation and large scale protest against China was held in Moscow.
In that situation Kuomintang government connived Japanese troops entered into north-east China and be stationed.
But Chinese people did not agree that so there was China's Anti-Japanese War.

 

[CardSharp]

Further more Japan was
In late 1920 era Sino-Russian border was in tense situation and large scale protest against China was held in Moscow.
In that situation Kuomintang government connived Japanese troops entered into north-east China and be stationed.
But Chinese people did not agree that so there was China's Anti-Japanese War.

I don't buy that at all. No country invites someone else to help themselves to 1/5 of its territory. I've always wondered about Chinese perception of Japan. Is there a difference between North and South in their views of Japan. I know Chauism holds positive views towards Japan and that people from Hebei hates Japan like nothing else.

 

[Nomenclature]

I don't buy that at all. No country invites someone else to help themselves to 1/5 of its territory. I've always wondered about Chinese perception of Japan. Is there a difference between North and South in their views of Japan. I know Chauism holds positive views towards Japan and that people from Hebei hates Japan like nothing else.

It might indeed have something to do with the North-South divide and probably Northerners are more anti-Japanese.

It's also related to different type of nationalist sentiments in different parts of China, i.e. Zhonghua nationalism vs Han nationalism. Han nationalists tend to have an overall positive attitude toward Japan. While Zhonghua nationalists are usually more negative.

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Han nationalists tend to have an overall positive attitude toward Japan.

Is it because Japan has 655,377 Han Chinese?