TOKYO China on Tuesday sent two patrol ships to waters near a remote and disputed island chain in a show of its undisputable sovereignty, Chinese state media said, escalating a territorial showdown between Asias two largest economies.
The move came as a direct response to Japans nationalization of the uninhabited islands, finalized Tuesday when the central governments cabinet approved a $26.2 million purchase of the land from a private Japanese owner.
We are watching closely the evolution of the situation and reserve the right to take reciprocal measures, said Geng Yansheng, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, according to Beijings state-run Xinhua news agency.
Japanese government officials have made the case that the purchase should do little to fray ties with Beijing: Japans government previously rented the land and tightly controlled it, allowing landing permission to almost nobody.
The purchase, one government spokesman said Tuesday, will ensure stable peace and maintenance of the land, which is also claimed by Taiwan. The uninhabited islands are significant because they occupy precious shipping lanes and may contain oil deposits.
Its important to avoid any misunderstanding by the Chinese government, the spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, said.
But China has reacted with fury, and the two countries, which both view the islands as a symbol of nationalist pride, have pushed one another to a tense standoff one that raises the potential for small-scale armed conflict, some security experts say.
To counter the Chinese ships, Japan sent a coast guard patrol vessel to the area, Japans Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
A Xinhua editorial called Japans decision to nationalize the islands ridiculous and absurd and an open provocation against China. Sending the patrol ships from the China Marine Surveillance one of 11 loosely regulated agencies or paramilitary groups China has used in its increasingly aggressive push for control of the East China and South China seas, according to a recent report from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group is timely and necessary, the editorial continued. The action dealt a big blow to the inflated swagger of Japan.
The report from Brussels said the marine surveillance unit enjoys considerable independence outside the governments power structure and has been involved in clashes with Philippine and Vietnamese ships.
Japan and China have conflicting narratives about the history of the islands, known in Japanese as Senkaku and Chinese as Diaoyu. Japan, which has controlled the rocky outcroppings for four decades, says China only showed interest in the territory after studies suggested a bounty of natural resources in the nearby waters. Beijing, meanwhile, says the land has been Chinas since ancient times, discovered and named by Chinese people and appearing on Chinese maps drafted centuries ago.
China will take any necessary measures to uphold its national territorial sovereignty, said Hong Lei, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman, during a regular news briefing Tuesday. We demand that the Japanese let go of its wrong actions and come back to the negotiating table to resolve the Diaoyu islands issue.
The low-simmering territorial dispute began to boil in April, when Tokyos nationalist governor, Shintaro Ishihara, told a think tank in Washington of his citys plan to nationalize the islands. Japans central government, fearing that Ishihara would directly confront China if he bought the land, decided to launch its own bid a move designed to decrease tensions, not raise them.
But Chinas Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced the purchase as a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty. Premier Wen Jiabao told university students in Beijing that China will never budge, even half an inch, over the sovereignty and territorial issue.
Many Chinese citizens view Japans claim to Diaoyu as a land grab akin to the countrys brutal invasion of China before and during World War II. The wounds from that war are still raw for some. Just this week, five Chinese citizens sued the Japanese government for bombing Chongqing between 1930 and 1944, demanding a worldwide apology from Japan.
On Tuesday afternoon, about 50 young protesters gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, pumping their fists at the front door and chanting that Japan was illegally claiming the contested islands.
Diaoyu has always been Chinas, said Li Jie, one of the protesters. If the [Chinese] government wants to go to war, Ill join the military.
There have been other land-based flare-ups in the past several years, but perhaps none as tense as this one. It comes as Chinas profile in the world is rising steadily and Japans diminishes. Nationalists in Japan have seized on this sense of insecurity to wage their claims on the islands.
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