Editor’s Note – In two strange moves, the Chinese have upped the ante in the dispute over the status of Senkaku Island. It is owned by Japan, but claimed by China – the problem is, it is rich in natural resources and the fishing grounds are plentiful. So what did China do?
It sent a fleet of 1,000 fishing vessels into the waters to create a confusing and muddled mess where Japan may make a mistake that would allow China to ratchet things up even further, and then a Chinese General ordered forces to prepare for battle and deployed warships as well.
In addition, nationalistic fervor is rising and protesters are entering the fray in boats as well.
A boat that sailed with activists from Hong Kong, center, is surrounded by Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands on August 15, 2012.
Chinese General: Prepare for Combat
Top Chinese general in unusual move tells troops to ready for combat with Japan
China’s most powerful military leader, in an unusual public statement, last week ordered military forces to prepare for combat, as Chinese warships deployed to waters near disputed islands and anti-Japan protests throughout the country turned violent.
Protests against the Japanese government’s purchase of three privately held islands in the Senkakus chain led to mass street protests, the burning of Japanese flags, and attacks on Japanese businesses and cars in several cities. Some carried signs that read “Kill all Japanese,” and “Fight to the Death” over disputed islands. One sign urged China to threaten a nuclear strike against Japan.
Gen. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, considered the most senior military political commissar, said Friday that military forces should be “prepared for any possible military combat,” state run Xinhua news agency reported.
Heightened tensions over the Senkakus come as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in China Monday.
Panetta, in comments made in Japan shortly before traveling to China, said, “We are concerned by the demonstrations, and we are concerned by the conflict that is taking place over the Senkaku islands.”
“The message I have tried to convey is we have to urge calm and restraint on all sides,” he said, noting any “provocation” could produce a “blow up.”
Panetta repeated the U.S. position that it is neutral in the dispute over Japan’s Senkaku islands, a small chain of islets located south of Okinawa and north of Taiwan. But he also reaffirmed the U.S. defense commitment to Japan, a treaty ally.
“We stand by our treaty obligations,” Panetta said, echoing a similar commitment made during a 2010 standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the Senkakus. ”They’re longstanding, and that has not changed.”
China claims the islands as its territory and calls them the Diaoyu islands.
BEIJING — Around 1,000 Chinese fishing boats are expected to arrive in waters near the Senkaku Islands claimed by China later Monday, the state-run China National Radio reported, in what may be Beijing’s additional countermeasures over Japan’s nationalization of the islets.
If a large number of Chinese vessels intrude into Japanese territorial waters around the Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, it could trigger unexpected incidents such as clashes with Japan Coast Guard patrol ships, further escalating tensions between the two countries.
The radio station said in an online edition that Chinese fisheries authorities will monitor the fishing boats’ activities near the uninhabited islets, which Beijing calls Diaoyu, via a marine observation satellite.
The 1,000 boats from coastal provinces such as Zhejiang and Fujian may be joined by six Chinese surveillance ships that have been staying in nearby waters since intruding into Japanese territorial waters near the islands Friday.
Meanwhile, anti-Japan protests continued in Beijing for the seventh straight day on Monday, but were much smaller than the mass demonstrations — some violent — that took place across China over the weekend.
As police tightened security around the Japanese Embassy, about 200 people on Monday marched on a street in front of the embassy, protesting the Japanese government’s announcement on Tuesday last week that it put the islands under state control by signing a purchase contract with the owner of three of the islands, a Japanese individual.
Some of the protests on Saturday and Sunday involved vandalism, looting and arson targeting Japanese factories, stores and restaurants operating in the country.
Anti-Japan protests are likely to continue up to the 81st anniversary on Tuesday of the start of the 1931 Mukden Incident, also known as the Manchurian Incident, in which the Imperial Japanese Army blew up a Japanese railway in southern Manchuria to serve as a pretext for invading northeastern China.
Japan maintains the Senkaku Islands are an integral part of Japanese territory and that there are no territorial disputes between the two countries. Taiwan also claims sovereignty over the islands, which are known as Tiaoyutai to the Taiwanese.
Posted by SUAadmin
on September 18, 2012. Filed under Breaking News, World Events.
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