yet another bit of Senkaku malarkey

[vadaga]

I was expecting the Senkaku issue to go to the back burner since the Communist Party succession has already finished on the mainland, but here's some news from today, which just happens to be, not without significance I am guessing, Nanjing Massacre Remembrance Day:

20:06 13 December
Chinese airplane enters Japanese airspace over Senkakus for 1st time

TOKYO, Dec. 13, Kyodo

A Chinese government airplane entered Japanese airspace over the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Thursday in the first such airspace intrusion in Japan, prompting an immediate protest from the Japanese government.

The Air Self-Defense Force scrambled F-15 fighter jets to the area after one of China's State Oceanic Administration airplanes was spotted at 11:06 a.m. about 15 kilometers south of Uotsuri Island, one of the Japanese-administered Senkakus claimed by China, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.

It is the first-ever intrusion by China into Japanese airspace since Tokyo started tallying the number of such intrusions in 1958, according to the Defense Ministry.

Four Chinese maritime surveillance vessels entered Japanese waters around the disputed islands in Okinawa Prefecture in the morning, marking the third straight day Chinese government ships have entered the waters, the Japan Coast Guard said.

Tokyo immediately filed a protest with Beijing after the airspace intrusion, Fujimura said, adding that it is "extremely deplorable" that the incident occurred on top of the intrusion by the Chinese ships, which lasted about six hours.

"We are determined to deal firmly with action that violates our country's sovereignty in accordance with domestic laws and regulations," the top government spokesman added.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda instructed relevant government offices to take further caution in warning and surveillance activities, he said.

In a stump speech in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Noda said, "I pledge to protect the nation and its people by practicing a thorough crisis management to protect our territorial land, sea, sovereignty and national interests."

The State Oceanic Administration of China, for its part, said its aircraft conducted a patrol mission with the four ships after reaching Chinese airspace over the disputed islands, which China calls Diaoyu.

Earlier in the morning, a coast guard patrol vessel that spotted the Chinese airplane radioed the aircraft, saying that it must leave Japanese airspace, but the plane replied that it was in Chinese airspace, according to the coast guard.

To respond to the airspace violation, the ASDF scrambled six F-15s from a base on the main Okinawa island and routed two more that had already been airborne. But the Chinese aircraft had already left the airspace when the fighter jets got there.

Radar operated by the Self-Defense Forces did not pick up the aircraft, according to the SDF.

Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai summoned acting Chinese Ambassador to Japan Han Zhiqiang to the Foreign Ministry in the early afternoon to lodge a protest, calling for the prevention of any similar case in the future and for Chinese ships still inside the waters to swiftly leave the area.

Han asserted that the islands belong to China and declined to accept the protest, yet indicated he would convey the protest to his home government. The diplomat noted that China hopes to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner through communication between the two countries, according to the ministry.

The Chinese aircraft in question is used in oceanic surveys and missions to monitor fishing activities, according to the Defense Ministry.

The airspace over the Senkaku Islands had been violated twice before -- by a Soviet bomber in 1979 and a Taiwanese civilian aircraft in 1994.

==Kyodo

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/12/199160.html

[jonathan.bluestein]

The Japs are playing with fire. Hatred among the masses in China towards them is over the top. The U.S. might get too busy with Syria and Iran to watch over the Japs' backs. Russia and its Czar Putin are somewhat on China's side within the new 'Eastern block' (countries with counter-U.S. interests). In case the Japs go overboard with their reaction, the Chinese could get really physical, and the Japs would not be able to stop them. Both these nation feed on false pride and Egotism. Once they start shooting, it would not end with one incident. I think people greatly underestimate what's at work here. In my opinion, this is not less delicate than the Bay of Pigs. Theoretically, they only play 'Chicken', but even though Game Theory would suggest that they both would eventually retreat, there could be a clash, and in and when it is to happen, it would ignite the whole region.

[Andy_S]

Heard an interesting snippet on the journalistic circuit the other day: Apparently, one of the Senkakus is still leased to the US Military...

I think it is the Chinese rather than the Japs who are playing with fire on this one: They are the ones stoking the hatred. And if push comes to shove, Tokyo and Washington have a defence treaty. The Americans don't want to see Japan go under any more than they want to see Israel overrun. The Chinese are capable at land warfare (as we all learned in Korea), but naval and aviation? Not so sure.

Personally I don't believe either country is going to let this thing escalate to a shooting incident: Too much at stake (ie Pacific War, Round Two). But I have been wrong before....and The Economist certainly believes it could spin out of control.

[vadaga]

SNIP
and The Economist certainly believes it could spin out of control.

Senkakus are now on the front page of Yahoo news in the US...

[gzregorz]

The Japs? Really JB? Did you get brainwashed by cctv9?

Like the situation in your country this is a complex issue in which you can't place all the blame on one side.

Who knows maybe the US will side with Japan and ask for Israeli support.

As far as the Chinese getting physical well first they have to get across the sea. Also as with the Israelis somehow I think threats alone, like the one you're implying, do little to help the situation.

[vadaga]

The Japs?
SNIP

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3s763n/

[gosao]

Five F-15's scrambled to stop this? and by the time they arrived it was gone?



If I was China I'd send crap loads of these cheapo planes every day to fly over those rocks and laugh while the Japanese spend millions in fuel to stop them. LOL

[vadaga]

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/ ... f-thrones/

"So far, Chinese diplomacy in Asia is eerily repeating some of the worst mistakes Germany made in Europe under Kaiser Wilhelm II: by turns frightening and angering neighbors who then draw together to balance its power. If China is determined to follow the German road to ruin, the next step will be to denounce the ‘encirclement’ its own actions have provoked, and then to start thinking about war scenarios to defeat the gathering coalition."

Hopefully it won't come to that...

[Michael]

Maybe the goal of the obviously synthetic Chinese outrage to the island controversy was for Abe to be elected in Japan. Nice how N. Korea just happened to launch a satellite/missile immediately before the elections, then Abe comes in and quickly tones down the aggressive rhetoric about China.

I find it impossible to imagine that either China or Japan want any sort of real, military confrontation over these otherwise insignificant islands.

[Muad'dib]

Sadly, the islands are not otherwise insignificant.

[Michael]

Japan and China are now threatening each other with retaliatory fighter jet scrambling and also threatening tracer warning shots with a clear escalation pattern involving the USA, who could quell this if they wanted. Trajectory seems to be heading toward obvious war planning considering the US-Japan and US-Taiwan treaties. All of this in the context of the USA increasing Pacific military presence while various multi-lateral treaties (TPP, ASEAN, Shanghai Co-op, BRIC, G20) are revealing the emergence of the third trading bloc of countries predicted by Marx and Orwell.

[everything]

I had to look up the bit about not insignificant. From BBC News

They matter because they are close to strategically important shipping lanes, offer rich fishing grounds and are thought to contain oil deposits.

Interesting to note that Taiwan also lays claim to them.