PLAN East Sea Fleet & Bases/Islands

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ahojunk

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Chinese Coast Guard accompanied scores of fishermen to the waters around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.
By Ankit Panda
August 08, 2016

Starting Friday, Chinese Coast Guard ships, accompanied by more than two hundred fishing vessels, entered disputed waters around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry on Friday, Chinese Coast Guard vessels entered the 12 nautical mile territorial sea around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands at 1:30 p.m., “navigating around” Chinese fishing vessels.

A release by the Japanese government Saturday noted that six Chinese Coast Guard vessels were accompanying “approximately 230 fishing vessels.” The statement notes that the fishing vessels were “in the surrounding waters” while the Chinese Coast Guard ships remained in the contiguous zone.

On Saturday, the Japanese government noted that instead of the situation deescalating after initial Japanese protests, a seventh Chinese Coast Guard ship entered the contiguous zone.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry protested strongly on Saturday evening, telling the Chinese embassy in Japan that “Japan cannot accept China’s activities as they are unilateral escalation that raise tensions on the ground, and requested to have the Chinese Coast Guard vessels leave the contiguous zone immediately.”

Japan released a follow-up press release on Sunday, noting that despite “repeated protests” to China, “seven Chinese Coast Guard vessels have not exited Japan’s contiguous zone surrounding the Senkaku Islands.”

Sunday’s statement notes that “two additional Chinese government vessels entered the contiguous zone,” and that “two vessels intruded into Japan’s territorial waters.” Japan has not specified which “Chinese government vessels” entered the contiguous waters around the disputed islets.

On Sunday, Japan reiterated its concern to China, noting that “the series of China’s activities are unilateral escalations that significantly raise tensions on the ground.”

When asked to comment on the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reiterated China’s position on the islands: “China has indisputable sovereignty over them and the adjacent waters.”

She added, "The Chinese side is working to properly manage situation in the relevant waters. We strongly hope that the Japanese side will honor its principled agreement with us, deal with the current situation with a cool head instead of taking actions that may raise tension or make things complicated, and make constructive efforts for stability in relevant waters together with us."

Earlier this summer, in a move that was perceived as highly provocative in Japan, China, for the first time, sent a naval vessel into the contiguous zone of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

The contiguous zone is a 12 nautical mile area immediately adjacent to a territorial sea. Under international law, states are able to enforce certain immigration, customs, and other laws in the contiguous zone.

Japan controls and administers the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, which are also claimed by China.

Outside of the East China Sea dispute with Japan, China has also deployed its coast guard alongside fishing vessels in disputed waters in the South China Sea.
 
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ahojunk

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2016-08-08 08:26 | Global Times | Editor: Li Yan
Japan lodges multiple protests over 'intrusion'

China's top oceanic agency announced Sunday that two more Coast Guard ships are patrolling the waters near the Diaoyu Islands, a day after over 200 fishing boats and seven Coast Guard vessels were reportedly sailing in the region.

Analysts said the patrols are a routine measure to demonstrate China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands, as ties between China and Japan have been further deteriorating in the past months due to Japan's meddling in the South China Sea disputes.

Although the State Oceanic Administration admitted sending only two more ships as of press time, Japan's Kyodo News reported on Sunday that 13 Chinese government vessels, an unprecedented number, are now patrolling the waters of the Diaoyu Islands - two joined Sunday morning and four in the afternoon.

"It's normal for China to send Coast Guard vessels to the Diaoyu area to safeguard China's fishing boats, as the Diaoyu Islands are an inherent part of Chinese territory," Lü Yaodong, director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

On Saturday, 230 Chinese fishing boats and seven China Coast Guard vessels were spotted near the Diaoyu Islands, according to Kyodo News. Some of the vessels appeared to be equipped with guns, Kyodo News cited the Japan Coast Guard as saying.

China has sent Coast Guard vessels to patrol the disputed area at least 20 times this year, according to the State Oceanic Administration's website. But experts say it's rare that hundreds of fishing boats would sail through the area at the same time.

Zhou Yongsheng, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, said the act was meant to demonstrate China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands and adjacent waters.

From Friday to Sunday, Japan lodged multiple protests to the Chinese Embassy in Japan as well as China's foreign ministry against the Chinese Coast Guard vessels' "intrusion," urging them to leave the waters immediately, according to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Responding to Japan's protests, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement on Saturday that "the Chinese side is working to properly manage the situation in the relevant waters."

"We strongly hope that the Japanese side will honor its principled agreement with us, and deal with the current situation with a cool head instead of taking actions that may raise tensions or complicate things," she was quoted as saying.

Deliberate protests

Japan on Sunday also protested to China over a surface radar which they say was found to have been installed on one of China's gas drilling platforms in the East China Sea area, Kyodo News reported, citing a Japanese government source.

The source told Kyodo News that the radar is for detecting ships and not powerful enough for military purposes, although concerns remain that China may use it as a military outpost in the future.

"[Installing the radar] is completely normal for China. Japan has no right to interfere with what China is doing on its own drilling platform in Chinese territory," Zhou said.

China has drilling platforms and foundations near the "median line" between China's coastline and that of Japan in the East China Sea.

Japan drew the "median line" as a demarcation between the two countries. China doesn't recognize the demarcation, and has proposed applying the principle of the natural prolongation of a continental shelf.

This is not the first time that Japan has protested against China's activities on the East China Sea. Earlier this month, Japan issued its annual defense white paper, and devoted over 30 pages to "irresponsible remarks" on China's national defense and China's normal and legal maritime activities in the East and South China Seas, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

China's defense ministry expressed strong opposition to the report, calling the annual document hostile to the Chinese military and deceptive to the international community.

Lü said Japan is intentionally bringing up several issues on the East China Sea at the same time. "By hyping issues involving the Diaoyu islands, Japan is escalating tensions that are already engulfing Northeast Asia and impairing the region's security environment," he told the Global Times.

"It's becoming a pattern. Whenever Japan has domestic political needs, it will bring up the East China Sea issue to serve its interests," he said.
 
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ahojunk

Senior Member
Look at the picture of the 2 diplomats. I can feel the coldness, lol.

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Tue Aug 9, 2016 6:13AM

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Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (L) meets Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua in Tokyo, in this photo taken by Kyodo August 9, 2016. ©Reuters

China and Japan have stepped up a war of words in their long-running row over the sovereignty of East China Sea islands after Tokyo summoned Beijing’s ambassador to protest China’s activities in the disputed waters.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that it had summoned Chinese Ambassador to Tokyo Cheng Yonghua, urging Beijing to withdraw its vessels from the waters as a measure to reduce tensions there.

Japan’s coastguard said recently that it spotted Chinese vessels swarming around the contested islets, claiming that some of the ships appeared to be armed.

China, which claims the uninhabited East China Sea islets-- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China-- occasionally sends its coastguard vessels close to them.

Following the meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he told the Chinese envoy that the relations between the two countries were “deteriorating markedly,” reiterating that Beijing was not allowed to send its ships into what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed East China Sea islets.

Kishida also accused China of “unilaterally” increasing tensions in the region.

In turn, the Chinese diplomat said he told Kishida that the islands were an “integral part of Chinese territory and that it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters in question.”

Cheng also asserted that the dispute between the two sides should be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

The Chinese envoy was also called in by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama on Friday.

China’s Foreign Ministry said last week that the country had indisputable sovereignty over the islands and nearby waters, urging Japan to make “constructive efforts for stability” and avoid taking actions that might complicate the situation.

In its annual defense review released last week, Japan claimed that China’s activities in the East China Sea caused Tokyo to scramble warplanes to the area more than 570 times last year.

Japan has also sided with Beijing’s rivals in a separate maritime dispute between China and a number of its neighbors in the South China Sea.

Tokyo says Beijing should respect a recent international arbitration ruling, which dismissed China’s sweeping claims in the sea.

The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled last month that China’s claims to sovereignty over the disputed areas in the sea or its resources “had no legal basis,” in a case brought by the Philippines.

However, Beijing rejects the verdict, arguing that the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the issue.
 
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PanAsian

Major
delft said:
Ambassador Bhadrakumar considers China's actions here as a just retribution for unnecessary Japanese meddling in the SCS disputes:
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He's right on that being retribution but wrong on "military grade" radars on gas platforms.
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East China Sea Oil Platform Radar: What Good Is It?
The “military” radar is not in a position to provide much military advantage.

By Steven Stashwick
August 10, 2016

Amid news last week that over 200 Chinese fishing and coast guard vessels had swarmed the waters around Japan’s disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) disclosed new evidence of possible Chinese militarization in the disputed waters. MOFA spokesmen said that one of China’s oil platforms in the East China Sea was found to have a military grade surface radar installed on it.

The only detail MOFA offered on the radar was that it was of a type “commonly found on patrol ships and not necessary for gas field development.” This implies the radar might have some military purpose in the middle of a sea where China and Japan are locked in dispute over the extent of their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and thus rights to the oil and gas reserves believed to be beneath it. Japan is understandably sensitive to developments that might threaten its EEZ claims in the region and lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing over the radar last Friday. However, from photographs MOFA provided of Chinese oil platforms in the East China Sea and a map of their rough locations, it is hard to see what military advantage the radar would provide China, or even to be sure that it is not intended for civil use.

MOFA indicated that the platform in question is referred to as the “12th Structure” in its collection of imagery and maps and that the radar was located beneath the structure’s helicopter landing pad. From the photograph, the radar appears to be a large rotating slotted-wave guide antenna typical of navigational and surface search radars used in both civil and military applications, and not something more exotic with exclusively military use. Even if the antenna is military grade of the sort found on “patrol ships,” there is substantial overlap between civil and military radars of this type; even the surface search radar on most U.S. Navy destroyers, the A/N SPS-73, was based on a commercially available Furuno antenna. In other words, this Chinese radar may be found as commonly on patrol ships as it is on large merchant vessels, and is not obviously an exclusively military radar based on the images provided.

Many oil rigs are equipped with some type of surface search radar to provide awareness of approaching vessels, danger of collision, potential security threats like pirates, and to assist with helicopter operations. Furuno markets products specifically for oil platforms that work off of its large surface search radars, similar to those used by the U.S. Navy. Even if not strictly “necessary for gas field development,” such radars are not unusual on large platforms.

However, regardless of whether Structure 12 needs the radar or not, it is still capable of providing “dual use” military utility alongside its civil application for the platform. Assuming MOFA is correct and the radar represents militarization of China’s East China Sea platforms, it could be used to provide permanent surveillance of the disputed waters. But it would probably not see much. Last year Ankit Panda explained why these platforms posed little potential military threat, and noted that “gas platform-based radar facilities for military surveillance purposes would make little sense,” because China already conducted substantial ship-borne surveillance in the East China Sea. The map and likely ranges of this radar set help show why.

Furuno’s most powerful surface search radars have a nominal range of 120 nautical miles (nm), but this is best understood to be the maximum “zoom out” that the radar can display, not its expected detection ranges. Furuno estimates that surface radars can only detect targets at ranges about 6 percent beyond the visible horizon under most conditions. Though oil platforms are much taller than most ships and therefore have a longer horizon view, this still means Structure 12’s radar can likely only detect a warship-sized vessel 30 or 40 nm away.

Given Structure 12’s position in the northern end of the Chinese gas field, it could potentially provide early warning of vessels approaching China’s East Sea Fleet bases near Shanghai, or to vessels transiting from the Japanese home islands to the disputed Senkaku Islands to the south. But even if the radar’s range was double the horizon-estimate, an 80 nm detection range still does not give the platform enough reach to really provide much help there. Because the platform’s position is fixed, vessels that China may be interested in detecting and tracking can simply avoid the radar by a safe buffer while transiting in its vicinity. Vessels sailing between the Senkakus and the home islands probably wouldn’t even need to adjust their tracks. Then again, the radar might just be to help protect China’s East China Sea platforms from wayward fishermen and merchant vessels after all.
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J

Janiz

Senior Member
siegecrossbow said:
Seventeen Chinese maritime patrol vessels within vicinity of the Diaoyu Islands!

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Not seventeen but fifteen...

And this action will be legendary! You know, Chinese CG cutters left the area around Senkaku Islands. But you would like to know the story behind it?

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China fishing boat sinks after colliding with freighter near Senkakus
NAHA, Japan (Kyodo) -- A Chinese fishing boat sank shortly after colliding with a Greek cargo ship on the high seas near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea early Thursday, the Japan Coast Guard said, following increased activities in recent days by Chinese ships in waters close to the Japan-controlled, China-claimed territory.

A coast guard patrol ship rescued six crew members of the fishing boat and searched for the other missing following its collision with the freighter Anangel Courage about 65 kilometers off Uotsuri Island, the largest in the Senkaku group of islets, just past 5 a.m., it said.

The 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters received a distress signal from the 106,727-ton freighter and sent a patrol boat and a plane to the site.

The Japanese coast guard unit, based in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, has been on high alert since it detected increased operations by Chinese government vessels and fishing boats in waters around the Senkakus on Aug. 5.

Some 200-300 Chinese fishing boats were spotted sailing in the so-called contiguous zone just outside territorial waters, with some entering Japanese waters, prompting Tokyo to lodge repeated protests with Beijing.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said it contacted the Chinese government about Thursday's incident and the Chinese side expressed appreciation for the rescue operation.
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Yes, one of those boats which was a part of the flotilla that went near Senkakus under Chinese CG protection collided with Greek registered freighter and sunk. Japanese CG acted swiftly in the rescue operations saving as many Chinese lives as they could and Chinese CG cutters went back home after being rendered futile! Chinese side sincerely thanked the Japanese like they should.

This event will be LEGENDARY! What's the response of Chinese netizens? :D
 
superdog

superdog

Junior Member
Janiz said:
Not seventeen but fifteen...

And this action will be legendary! You know, Chinese CG cutters left the area around Senkaku Islands. But you would like to know the story behind it?

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Yes, one of those boats which was a part of the flotilla that went near Senkakus under Chinese CG protection collided with Greek registered freighter and sunk. Japanese CG acted swiftly in the rescue operations saving as many Chinese lives as they could and Chinese CG cutters went back home after being rendered futile! Chinese side sincerely thanked the Japanese like they should.

This event will be LEGENDARY! What's the response of Chinese netizens? :D
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It is an accident with eight people missing/possibly dead, yet all you're doing here is chest thumping and mocking others with words like "LEGENDARY!" and smiley icons. That's just low.
 
J

Janiz

Senior Member
superdog said:
It is an accident with eight people missing/possibly dead, yet all you're doing here is chest thumping and mocking others with words like "LEGENDARY!" and smiley icons. That's just low.
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lol, you're writing about something low? The initial reports (like the one I posted here) didn't have any infos on how much people were rescued/missing. In Japanese a behavior that you presented is called 'gyaku kire' if I'm not mistaken and it means 'a situation where offender is angry at the victim'. If you want anyone to point your anger it should be Chinese offcials who sent those boats there. And thank Japanese CG for resucing everyone they could if you don't want to sound 'low'.
 
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