Features National Politics
Adam Westlake on Apr 10 2013
Following the announcement on Wednesday that Japan and Taiwan
had reached an agreement for the later to continue fishing in waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands,
China is, as expected, not happy about the alliance. Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, stated that the country was "extremely concerned" about the fishing agreement, as it still claims the uninhabited territory as their own, calling it Diaoyu.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the Washington Post misquoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's remarks about China. The article quotes Abe as saying the
Chinese have a "deeply ingrained" need for conflict, which has led to another war of words with the Chinese government.
China has denounced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s comments to a U.S. newspaper saying that
China had a "deeply ingrained" need to challenge its neighbors in territorial disputes, state-run media said on Friday. Abe, who is visiting the United States for talks with President Barack Obama, stated in an interview with the Washington Post that Beijing uses disputes with Japan and others to gain its domestic public support.
Officials stated Thursday that the Japanese government and the
United States will work together to revise their bilateral defense cooperation. The guidelines will examine ways to deal with emerging threats, terrorism and cyber crimes.
And the issues between Japan and
China just keeps on piling up.
South Korea is set to extradite Liu Quiang, the Chinese citizen who firebombed the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to Japan and face charges for setting a small fire at a religious shrine, considered a symbol of Japan's imperialism during
World War II.
It seems as if there's been a never-ending presence of
Chinese patrols ships near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands over the past few weeks, with vessels going home only being replaced by new ones. However, the
Japan Coast Guard has reported today that four patrol ships have entered Japanese territorial waters, something that hasn't occurred in some time. The first three ships entered the waters just after 6:30 AM, with a fourth joining an hour later.
The military has a duty to protect the country's sovereignty and maritime territory. As such,
Chinese marine surveillance and fisheries patrol ships will to continue to perform their duties in the waters near the
Diaoyu Islands.
After departing the day before, Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai is in
Beijing on Tuesday in an effort to cool the escalated tensions with China after the last two weeks of dispute over the
Senkaku/
Diaoyu Islands. Kawai will be
meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Zhang Zhijun, after widespread anti-Japanese protests were held across the country, as well as threats of military countermeasures, resulted from Japan's purchase of the disputed territory. While the Japanese diplomat's visit will be for two days, the waters around the islands are now filled with
protesting ships from Taiwan.
During U.S. Defense Secretary
Leon Panetta's visit to China on Tuesday, the Beijing government instructed him that the United States needs to not get involved in the disputed islands tensions, and honor its promise of not taking sides. Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie also said that they want to work towards a peaceful resolution with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, but they maintain their
right to take "further action." Well, that seems a little bit like getting things both way, and by
China's logic, their right to take action no doubt requires Japan to give them whatever they want.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that Japan's "illegal purchase" of the
Senkaku/
Diaoyu Islands was having increasingly, and wide-ranging negative effects. He further added that Japan should be held responsible for the vandalism damage its own companies sustained over the violent protest-filled weekend. That is some pretty rock-solid logic right there, and just incase you're still confused about who is to blame for Chinese protesters dragging one of their own countrymen out of his car and beating him,
just because said car was a Toyota, Hong says that any more escalated tensions will be a result of how Japan acts.
