China provided the UN with detailed claims to waters in the East China Sea on Friday, apparently padding out its legal argument in an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it submitted documents claiming waters extending beyond its 200 nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zone. It said geological features dictated that China’s claim extended to the edge of the continental shelf off the Chinese coast, about 200km from Japan’s Okinawa Island.
A statement posted on the ministry’s Web site gave no specifics, but China had pledged to make such a submission shortly after its dispute with Japan over the uninhabited Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu (釣魚) in China, flared again in September. Taiwan also claims the islands.
Japan angered China by buying three of the islands from their private Japanese owners to block a rival bid by Tokyo’s nationalist mayor, a move Japan had hoped would prevent a bigger crisis.
Violent anti-Japanese protests then broke out across China to assert what many Chinese believe is their country’s ages-old claim on the rocky outcrops.
China’s move is a way for it to underscore its claim, but will have little real impact. The UN commission to which it submitted its claim, which comprises geological experts, evaluates the markers on technical grounds, but has no authority to resolve overlapping claims.
The UN submission represents one aspect of China’s approach to the dispute. Another involves dispatching vessels to patrol in the area and confront Japanese coast guard ships.
On Thursday, China for the first time dispatched a plane over the islands, prompting Tokyo to accuse it of violating Japanese air space. The Japanese Defense Agency said four Japanese F-15 jets headed to the area in response, but the non-military Chinese plane was nowhere to be seen by the time they got there. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said a formal protest was sent to Beijing through its embassy in Japan.
China in turn protested what it said were Japanese military planes entering its airspace near the islands.
“The Foreign Ministry has urged the Japanese side to take China’s solemn position seriously and stop all acts that infringe upon or harm China’s territorial sovereignty,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said.
“China’s maritime surveillance plane flying over the Diaoyu Islands is completely normal,” Hong said, adding they were “China’s inherent territory since ancient times.”
The US also voiced concern on Friday after the incident.
“It’s important to avoid actions that raise tensions and to prevent miscalculations that could undermine peace, security and economic growth in the region,” US Department of State acting deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.
Washington had raised its concerns with Beijing, he said, adding that the US made clear that its “policy and commitments regarding the Senkaku Islands are long-standing and have not changed.”
US officials had also talked to the Japanese government, he added.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘ONE BRIDGE’: The US president-elect met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 in Florida and the two discussed a potential Taiwan-China conflict’s implications for world peace US president-elect Donald Trump has described Taiwan as “a major issue for world peace” during a meeting with Akie Abe, the widow of late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted sources as saying in a report yesterday. Trump met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the two discussed the Russo-Ukrainian war and the situation in the Taiwan Strait. During the meeting, Trump spoke on the implications for world peace of a potential Taiwan-China conflict, which “indicated his administration’s stance of placing importance on dealing with the situation in
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
ALLIANCE: Washington continues to implement its policy of normalizing arms sales to Taiwan and helps enhance its defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US President Joe Biden on Friday agreed to provide US$571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said, while the US State Department approved the potential sale of US$265 million in military equipment. Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to US$571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement. However, it did not provide specific details about this latest package, which was the third of its kind to
RSS