China deploys navy ships to patrol Senkaku Islands

A day after asking Japan to stop encroaching its territory, Chinese military deployed its naval ships to patrol the islands disputed with Tokyo in the East China Sea.

This is the first time in recent months China deployed its naval vessels for patrols in the islands waters replacing the marine surveillance vessels, even though some naval ships were seen in the waters earlier. A two-vessel fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy patrolled the territorial waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands April 16, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China calls the islands Diaoyu while Japan refers to them Senkakus, which were administered by Tokyo till last September after which China started challenging the Japanese hold on the islets.

Significantly they also conducted open-sea offensive and defensive training as well as exercises of intercepting and searching illegal vessels in the western Pacific Ocean on April 14 and 15, it said.

Missile destroyer Lanzhou and missile frigate Hengshui, both from the Navy’s Nanhai Fleet, entered the sea area via the Miyako Strait in the night of April 16, the report said.

The patrol by the Nanhai fleet ships came after vessels from the PLA Navy’s Beihai Fleet and Donghai Fleet had previously patrolled the Diaoyu Islands waters.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun asked Japan to stop encroaching the country’s territory asserting it has the capability and determination to safeguard them.

“What is important now is for Japan to stop activities that undermine China’s territorial sovereignty and take actions to ensure the issue resolved,” he said while release a white paper on the Chinese military.

The paper named Japan as “trouble maker” while accusing US of making situation “tenser” by forging alliances in Asia.

• Japan shocks China on Senkakus (chinadailymail.com)
• China deploys navy ships to patrol islands disputed with Japan (stratrisks.com)
• China sends naval ships to patrol waters near disputed Senkakus (japandailypress.com)
• Ships from PLA South Sea Fleet patrol Diaoyutai islands (wantchinatimes.com)
• China issues white paper on national defence (chinadailymail.com)
• Japan Coast Guard reports Chinese ships in Senkaku waters (japandailypress.com)
• UPDATE1: China says 2 navy ships “patrolled” waters around Senkakus (english.kyodonews.jp)
• China naval ships sail through Okinawa islets, but not near Senkakus (english.kyodonews.jp)
• Chinese Military Warns Japan (warnewsupdates.blogspot.com)
• China may survey and set marks on disputed Senkaku Islands (chinadailymail.com)
• Japan scrambled record number of jets against Chinese aircraft this fiscal year (japandailypress.com)