China’s military was on “high alert” on Thursday and Beijing said it had filed a complaint with Tokyo after the Japanese warship passed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time.
Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the reports at a regular briefing because they related to military operations.
But Beijing confirmed that its military had responded to “the activities of a Japanese Self-Defense Force ship entering the Taiwan Strait.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, “China is extremely alert to the political intentions of Japan’s actions and has lodged a strong protest with Japan.”
The United States and its allies are increasingly crossing the 180-kilometer (112-mile) Taiwan Strait to bolster its status as an international waterway, angering China.
Several Japanese media outlets said the Sazanami destroyer made the unprecedented passage on Wednesday.
Wellington’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that military ships from New Zealand and Australia also passed through the hotly contested waterway on the same day.
One of its ships made its first passage through the Taiwan Strait in seven years with an Australian guided missile destroyer to assert “the right to freedom of navigation,” a defense official told AFP.
The official said the mission was not conducted with Japan. Japanese media said the three countries planned to conduct military exercises in the disputed South China Sea.
China’s Defense Ministry also confirmed on Thursday that ships from the three countries had “conducted a transit operation through the Taiwan Strait”.
The Chinese military “remained on high alert and monitored these routes”, spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said.
“These actions will undermine China’s sovereignty and security,” he said.
“(The Chinese military) will remain on high alert and take all necessary measures to counter these threats and provocations,” he said.
‘Threat’ to China
In response to “foreign warships passing through the Taiwan Strait”, Beijing said on Thursday it “consistently handles such cases in accordance with laws and regulations”.
The Foreign Ministry said it was “highly alert to any actions that threaten China’s sovereignty and security”.
Last week, China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier accompanied by two destroyers sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time.
The ships entered Japan’s territorial waters – an area up to 24 nautical miles from the country’s coast – with Tokyo calling the incident “completely unacceptable”. China said it had complied with international law.
This comes after the first confirmed incursion into Japanese airspace by Chinese surveillance aircraft in August.
The Yomiuri Shimbun daily, citing unnamed government sources, said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had ordered Wednesday’s Taiwan Strait trip out of concern that doing nothing after China’s incursions would prompt Beijing to take more assertive action. Can be encouraged.
‘Serious concern’
Beijing, which says democratic Taiwan is part of its territory, claims jurisdiction over the body of water that separates the island from China.
But the United States and many other countries argue that their voyages through the strait are routine, citing freedom of navigation.
China this month accused Berlin of increasing security risks in the Taiwan Strait, a day after two German navy ships passed through the waters.
On Wednesday, China test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific Ocean in its first such drill in decades.
Japan said it was not given prior notice of the test, with Hayashi expressing “serious concerns” about China’s military buildup in comments repeated Thursday.
“China’s military incursions into our territorial airspace and other incidents are happening one after another in a short period of time,” Hayashi said.
He said Japan would “try its best to patrol and monitor” the situation.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry also said Thursday that 43 Chinese military aircraft and eight naval vessels were detected around the island within a 24-hour period.
Beijing has said it will never give up using force to bring Taiwan under its control, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in recent years saying “unification” is “inevitable”.
Beck Stretting, professor of international relations at La Trobe University, said Japan’s reported Taiwan Strait transit is “part of a broader pattern of greater naval presence by countries within and outside Asia that are concerned about China’s maritime claims”. .
“Japan is particularly dealing with China’s ‘grey zone’ strategy in the East China Sea,” he told AFP, which also includes increasing the number of coast guard ships close to the disputed islands.
Military experts say gray-zone tactics are actions that serve to exhaust a country’s armed forces.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
