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.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
RSS