China sends patrol ships to islands held by Japan

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DPI

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Just another crisis brewing thanks to America’s failed leadership.
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And my favorite statement that is par for the course:*
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“Japan is a staunch U.S. ally, but Washington says it does not take a position on the conflicting territorial claims. It also does not want to further strain its own relations with China.”
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*But they will strain another ally relationship.
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http://news.yahoo.com/china-sends-patrol-ships-islands-held-japan-051725925.html
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BEIJING (AP) — A territorial flare-up between China and Japan intensified as two Beijing-sent patrol ships arrived near disputed East China Sea islands in a show of anger over Tokyo's purchase of the largely barren outcroppings from their private owners.

The China Marine Surveillance has drawn up a plan to safeguard China's sovereignty of the islands and the ships were sent to assert those claims, China's official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. The marine agency is a paramilitary force whose ships are often lightly armed.

The rocky islands, known as Senkaku to Japanese and Diaoyu to Chinese, have been the focus of recurring spats between the countries and also are claimed by Taiwan. The China-Japan dispute has been heating up in recent months, in part because the nationalist governor of Tokyo proposed buying the islands and developing them.

Japan's central government announced its own deal this week with the Japanese family it recognizes as the owner. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters the government budgeted 2.05 billion yen ($26 million) for the purchase "to maintain the Senkakus peacefully and stably."

Public broadcaster NHK said the government and the family signed a deal Tuesday.

Beijing responded to the move with fury.

"The determination and the will of the Chinese government and military to safeguard their territorial integrity are firm," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in a statement. "We are closely monitoring the development of the situation and reserve the right to take necessary measures."

Japan has claimed the islands since 1895. The U.S. took jurisdiction after World War II and turned them over to Japan in 1972. But Beijing sees the purchase as an affront to its claims and its past calls for negotiations.

Japan does not plan to develop the islands, in contrast with the proposal made by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.

"Ishihara put the national government in a very difficult spot. He pushed them into doing this now," said Sheila Smith, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. But she said this was a "good outcome" that should be seen as an attempt by Tokyo to sideline Ishihara.

Japan cannot afford to let the dispute hinder its vital ties with China, its top trading partner, Smith said.

The United States urged Japan and China to solve the dispute through dialogue. Japan is a staunch U.S. ally, but Washington says it does not take a position on the conflicting territorial claims. It also does not want to further strain its own relations with China.

"In the current environment we want cooler heads to prevail," Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, said in Washington. "This (the Asia-Pacific) is the cockpit of the global economy and the stakes could not be bigger. The desire is for all leaders to keep that in mind."

Carlyle Thayer, an expert on regional security at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said the sending of the Chinese patrol boats "ups the stakes."

"It's a tit-for-tat response because China is extremely sensitive about sovereignty matters," he said.

Japan's coast guard said it has not taken any special measures in response to the Chinese patrol boats although it continues to monitor the situation.

Thayer said the Chinese boats would likely stop short of entering the 12 nautical miles around the islands that are considered territorial waters and administered by Japan.

"Japan has a pretty robust navy, a very strong and active professional coast guard. What is possible are the kinds of confrontations like occurred at Scarborough Shoal," a disputed reef where Chinese and Philippine boats faced off earlier this year.

"It's all posturing. It's a game of who blinks first," Thayer said.

Beijing's anger has been accompanied by heated reporting in China's state media. Reactions to Japanese actions are sometimes overstated in China, and a commentator in the People's Liberation Army Daily, the main newspaper of China's military, called Japan's move "the most blatant challenge to China's sovereignty since the end of World War II."

About a dozen protesters gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing chanting, "Japan, get out of China." Xinhua reported that people had also taken to the streets to protest in two cities in the south and east.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry also lodged a strong protest to Japan. It called the island purchase an "extremely unfriendly move" that "not only harms the longtime cooperation between Taiwan and Japan but will also aggravate regional tensions in East Asia."

Top Japanese government officials maintain that the flare-up hasn't affected official ties with China. Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada said activists on both sides were fanning emotions.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met only briefly with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of this past weekend's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok, Russia. Japanese news reports said Noda emphasized the importance of dealing with the island dispute from a broad perspective.

China also has announced coordinates marking out the waters off the Diaoyu Islands that it considers its territory, apparently for the first time after doing so earlier for the mainland and other islands.

The coordinates are another step, along with recent announcements of China's intention to use law enforcement vessels, to defend its sovereignty claim, said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, northeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group.

In Tokyo, Gov. Ishihara said he would release 1.4 billion yen ($18 million) donated toward his islands purchase plan to the central government, but only once it was clear whether it would heed his calls to build a port or other facilities.

He also suggested that Japan cooperate with the Philippines and Vietnam, which have their own territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.

"We shouldn't see this as an issue that only concerns Japan," he said.
 

DPI

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Beijing hints at bond attack on Japan


Beijing hints at bond attack on Japan
A senior advisor to the Chinese government has called for an attack on the Japanese bond market to precipitate a funding crisis and bring the country to its knees, unless Tokyo reverses its decision to nationalise the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea.
China's national flag is raised during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium
Jin Baisong called on China to invoke the 'security exception' rule under the World Trade Organisation to punish Japan Jin Baisong from the Chinese Academy of International Trade – a branch of the commerce ministry – said China should use its power as Japan’s biggest creditor with $230bn (£141bn) of bonds to “impose sanctions on Japan in the most effective manner” and bring Tokyo’s festering fiscal crisis to a head.

Writing in the Communist Party newspaper China Daily, Mr Jin called on China to invoke the “security exception” rule under the World Trade Organisation to punish Japan, rejecting arguments that a trade war between the two Pacific giants would be mutually destructive.

Separately, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported that China is drawing up plans to cut off Japan’s supplies of rare earth metals needed for hi-tech industry.

The warnings came as anti-Japanese protests spread to 85 cities across China, forcing Japanese companies to shutter factories and suspend operations.

Fitch Ratings threatened to downgrade a clutch of Japanese exporters if the clash drags on. It warned that Nissan is heavily at risk with 26p of its global car sales in China, followed by Honda with 20pc. Sharp and Panasonic both have major exposure. Japan’s exports to China were $74bn in the first half of this year. Bilateral trade reached $345bn last year.
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Mr Jin said China can afford to sacrifice its “low-value-added” exports to Japan at a small cost. By contrast, Japan relies on Chinese demand to keep its economy afloat and stave off “irreversible” decline.

“It’s clear that China can deal a heavy blow to the Japanese economy without hurting itself too much,” he said. It is unclear whether he was speaking with the full backing of the Politburo or whether sales of Japanese debt would do much damage. The Bank of Japan could counter the move with bond purchases. Any weakening of the yen would be welcome.

A recent study by the US Defence Department concluded that a Chinese firesale of US debt was not a serious threat.

The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, was in Beijing on Tuesday to try to stem the political crisis, calling for restraint on both sides.

He warned earlier that “provocations” over the islands could spiral out of control and lead to conflict.

Mr Panetta said the US is neutral but this is a hard balancing act, given the US nuclear umbrella for Japan and its use of military bases on Japanese soil as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”. The ambiguity of the US role was glaring after a deal with Tokyo on Monday to build a new anti-missile radar shield – ostensibly against North Korea.

Diplomats say China is calibrating the crisis to probe the strength of US ties with Japan, knowing that alliance fatigue in Washington and the clumsy handling of the dispute by Tokyo has created a rare opportunity.

The Obama administration must navigate a delicate course. A tough line against China risks putting the world’s two superpowers on a collision course: a soft line risks setting off alarm bells in Japan and pushing the country towards rearmament.

Christian Le Miere from the International Institute for Strategic Studies said the crisis had become dangerous, citing Mao Zedong’s aphorism from 1930 that “a single spark can start a prairie fire”.

He said the region is “rife with historical enmity and chauvinism”, encouraged by Tokyo’s “seeming lack of contrition for wartime atrocities” and China’s own well-nurtured narrative of humiliation by foreigners.

China’s post-Maoist regime derives its legitimacy from nationalism, especially now that the boom is fading and China is losing some of its competititve edge.

The anti-Japanese fervour was systematically stoked by the “Patriotic Education Campaign” of Jiang Zemin in the 1990s to divert attention from party corruption and the growing gap between rich and poor.

But it is a double-edged sword for China’s leaders. “Given its potency, it is difficult to control. Nationalism can turn against the government, if it is perceived as doing too little,” he said.

Markets are already starting to price in an arms race in Asia. Shares of China’s North Navigation Control Technology, which makes missile systems, have jumped 30pc in recent days.

China is becoming self-sufficient in defence. It was the world’s biggest net importer of weapons six years ago. It fell to fourth place last year.

Japan is at the other extreme. An official report this year – “A Strategy for Survival” – said Japan’s spending on its “Self-Defence Force” had shrunk by 4pc in 10 years. It called for “urgent” action to rebuild the country’s military.

If there is any silver lining in an Asian arms race, it may at least soak up the region’s excess savings and pull the world out of semi-slump. But be careful what you wish for.
 

DPI

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And another:
Chinese General: Prepare for Combat

BY: Bill Gertz
September 18, 2012 5:00 am

China’s most powerful military leader, in an unusual public statement, last week ordered military forces to prepare for combat, as Chinese warships deployed to waters near disputed islands and anti-Japan protests throughout the country turned violent.

Protests against the Japanese government’s purchase of three privately held islands in the Senkakus chain led to mass street protests, the burning of Japanese flags, and attacks on Japanese businesses and cars in several cities. Some carried signs that read “Kill all Japanese,” and “Fight to the Death” over disputed islands. One sign urged China to threaten a nuclear strike against Japan.

Gen. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, considered the most senior military political commissar, said Friday that military forces should be “prepared for any possible military combat,” state run Xinhua news agency reported.

Heightened tensions over the Senkakus come as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in China Monday.

Panetta, in comments made in Japan shortly before traveling to China, said, “We are concerned by the demonstrations, and we are concerned by the conflict that is taking place over the Senkaku islands.”

“The message I have tried to convey is we have to urge calm and restraint on all sides,” he said, noting any “provocation” could produce a “blow up.”

Panetta repeated the U.S. position that it is neutral in the dispute over Japan’s Senkaku islands, a small chain of islets located south of Okinawa and north of Taiwan. But he also reaffirmed the U.S. defense commitment to Japan, a treaty ally.

“We stand by our treaty obligations,” Panetta said, echoing a similar commitment made during a 2010 standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the Senkakus. ”They’re longstanding, and that has not changed.”

China claims the islands as its territory and calls them the Diaoyu islands.

Last week, following the Japanese government’s purchase of three of the Senkakus from private Japanese owners, six Chinese maritime security ships were deployed near the Senkaku islands, further heightening tensions.

Xu’s unusual comments followed reports in state-controlled Chinese media that opposed the Japanese government’s purchase of the three islands.

Xu said during a visit to military units near Taiyuan, in the northern province of Shanxi, “efforts should be made to ensure that the military is capable of resolutely performing its duty to safeguard the country’s national sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity whenever it is needed by the Party and the people.”

A U.S. official said the PLA’s most senior political general rarely makes such direct appeals to troops to prepare for combat.

Panetta told reporters en route to Japan, the first stop on a three-nation visit to Asia, “The United States does not take a position with regards to territorial disputes.”

In 2010, then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates invoked the U.S.-Japan defense treaty when tensions between China and Japan increased over Tokyo’s arrest of a Chinese fishing captain who rammed his boat against a Japanese coast guard vessel in waters near the Senkakus. Gates said the United States would “fulfill our alliance responsibilities” toward Japan.

Japan’s Coast Guard announced on Sept. 14 that six Chinese maritime patrol vessels sailed into Japanese-controlled waters near the Senkakus and the vessels ignored Japanese warnings for the ships to leave the area.

Other reports from China on Monday showed a convoy of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels sailing toward the disputed islands.

The six Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near the island on Friday, and ignored Japanese coast guard orders for them to vacate what it said was its territorial waters.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that six of its surveillance ships had entered the waters near the islands.

China’s aggressiveness in maritime disputes has garnered little attention in the presidential election campaign.

On Monday, President Obama criticized GOP nominee Mitt Romney for his attack on the administration for being soft on China through its weak response to China’s trade and currency policies.

The Chinese maritime warships near the Senkakus were reported last week by Xinhua as “routine patrols” near the islands to “assert the country’s sovereignty and protect fishermen.”

“The Diaoyou Islands and their affiliated islets have been China’s inherent territory since ancient times, and their surrounding waters are China’s traditional fishing ground,” the report said.

A classified Chinese government map from 1969 that was obtained by Japan’s government shows Beijing had labeled the islands as “Senkaku,” their Japanese name, and thus confirmed their control by Tokyo. The map, which was viewed by the Free Beacon, also had a dividing line south of the islands showing that they fall within Japanese territory.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during a hearing last week that China’s behavior toward regional states was tantamount to bullying.

“While the world’s attention was turned to other crises, including Iran’s nuclear program and concerns over the faltering Euro, China has upped the ante, playing the role of a schoolyard bully towards its maritime neighbors,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

“From one end to the other of the South China Sea, Beijing has increased both in belligerence and bellicosity.”

Ros-Lehtinen said the United States, through the Navy, will stand by friends and allies in the region.

The Florida Republican said China is seeking to control the South China Sea and other coastal waters and sealanes because they are “central to the Chinese communist mandarins’ aspirations to re-establish the Middle Kingdom as the dominant power in Asia.”

“Whoever controls these sea lanes can dominate Asia-and beyond-by choking off that commerce and oil shipments to the major stakeholders in the Asian economic miracle,” she said.

Chinese efforts to dominate the western Pacific are increasing the possibility of naval clashes, Ros-Lehtinen said.

“Other global crises must not distract from our vital national interests in the South China Sea and the western Pacific,” she said during a hearing.
 

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