China to go ahead with naval exercise amid East China Sea island dispute with Japan

A Japanese ship sails around one of the disputed Senkaku-Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. / AP

Beijing China said Wednesday that its navy will proceed with a deep-water training exercise amid a continuing spat with Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea that has sparked regular confrontations between patrol boats from each side.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the previously scheduled exercise would take place in the coming days in the Pacific, beyond where the islands are located, and where deep waters are ideal for anti-submarine drills.

Play Video

Will China and Japan go to war over tiny islands?

The navy, which last year launched China's first aircraft carrier, held seven such drills last year, each involving a half-dozen or more surface ships and an unknown number of submarines. The exercises reflect China's long-held aspirations to build a navy that can operate far from its shores.

Ships taking part in such exercises before have passed just north of the disputed islands, which lie midway between Taiwan and the Japanese island of Okinawa. Training takes place farther out to sea, although the exact location is not announced.

• China takes aim at Japan over island dispute
• China, Japan meet on sidelines of UN over disputed islands
• China sidesteps South China sea island disputes

Separately, the official Xinhua News Agency said three ships — a missile destroyer and two missile frigates — departed from the eastern port of Qingdao on Tuesday for exercises in the western Pacific. Citing unidentified sources, it said the ships would conduct 20 different drills simulating combat, navigation, and law enforcement operations.

Xinhua said the training area would include the Yellow, East China and South China seas, as well as areas north, south and east of Taiwan. Although that comprises a huge swathe of ocean off the Chinese coast, the report did not specifically mention the disputed islands.

Both sides recently have scrambled jet fighters and confronted each other's patrol boats in waters surrounding the uninhabited rocks, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.

With fears rising over a clash — either accidental or intentional — Japan has in recent weeks launched diplomatic efforts to ease tensions. On Tuesday, China-friendly ex-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi for what the ministry described as friendly talks.

China-Japan relations are at a "critical phase," spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a briefing Wednesday.

"The two sides should ... take a responsible attitude toward history, properly handle the Diaoyu islands issue, and work toward improving and developing China-Japan relations," Hong said.

Although China has called repeatedly for dialogue on the issue, it has yet to send an envoy to Japan or respond to Tokyo's proposal for a summit between their leaders. That is at least in part due to Japan's rejection of Beijing's demand that it recognize that the islands' sovereignty is in dispute.

[88Ronin]

Thanks, jefforsythe, you've just been registered as an organ donor.

[Robert_23143]

China /Japan disputed over Islands. Nanking Documentary 2007 (Youtube) First hand of the Massacre as told by a US Missionary named George Fitch, a US Surgeon named Bob Wilson,
Dean of Ginling Women's College named Minnie Vautrin from Illinois, Director of Siemens from German named John Rabe,
Quote, " We always knew Japam wanted China, I knew it since I was little, my parent said Japan always wanted to conquor China because we had all the land and all the wealth, and we were right next door.

[Robert_23143]

Have you no shame Japanese Government? Japan has war crimes they denies. Before Pearl Harbour, from the advanced of Shanghai to Nanking, the Imperial Japanese Army murdered 500,000 civilians and disarmed soldiers. Women, children and even the pregnant were not spared, they were raped and killed, (Wikipedia: Nanjing Massacre and The rape of Nanking.) On August 15, 1951 and September 18, 1951, China published statements denouncing the SF Treaty,
stating that it was illegal because China was not invited to participate in the drafting and signing of the 1951 Treaty despite being one of the main victims of the Japanese aggression. The evidence for Chinese sovereignty over the Diaoyu islands are quite compelling. The most interesting evidence is emerging from old Japanese government
documents and suggests that Japan in effect stole the islands from China in 1895 as booty of war. Adding to that. The San Francisco Treaty of 1951 says Japan has adminisatration not sovereignty of the islands. So why is the Japanese government being so sneaky nationalizing some of the islands by buying them from a private Japanese owner whom they sold them to in the first place. Very recently, the PM of Japan Shinzo Abe visited the war shrine to honor Class A WWII war criminals. And he said it was ok that Japan colonized Korea, and that the enslavement of Korean women as sex slaves was ok. And he even whitewashed their war crimes in textbooks. Japan committed horrible atrocities. Unlike Germany, they deny what they did and never compensate the victims. Can you imagine Merkel honoring Hitler??? Japan is still bullying. Can you imagine when Al qeada killed 3000 innocence and America stand by and do nothing?
Mr. Shinzo Abe, learn from the Germans, tell the truth, apologize to your neighbors and the people of the countries you torture, pay for your crimes and visit burial site of the innocents that your country had killed in the past. Bow and apologize to the men, woman and children that your people have killed. Then, maybe your neighbors will accept you and get along with you. Be a true leader in Asia like Germans to the EU. If you don't, you, your country and your people are no better than,,,,,,,,

[bobishot123]

this is propoganda the islands have nothing to do with ww 11 noone believes in your crazy theorys lol

[ChooseRightGun]

Nothing is farther from the truth. Those **** are cold and crazy! Now they recall 1.8 Billion cars. May be they will recall Pearl Harbour soon!

[jefforsythe]

It is about time that the people of the Free World learned the truth about the brutal Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Never since the beginning of recorded history has there been a more vicious, inhuman, cruel group of heartless gangsters on this planet. It was not that long ago that the evil of the Party was so strong that an average citizen was afraid even to have a bad thought about the Party. Now the Party is being cursed openly in the streets. There are hundreds if not thousands of slaves camps hidden all over Mainland China where millions of people, including many children, sleep on cold floors, in their own excrement, churning out the silly items such as place mats, chopsticks, dishtowels, etc., to be purchased by naive Westerners who repeatedly ask the same question, how do they do it ? The monstrous CCP also practices organ harvesting. One doctor who just immigrated to the West, confessed that he had performed hundreds of cornea removal operations on living children. This is where the cornea of children are removed and sold to rich Chinese and Westerners, leaving the children blind. The past leader of the CCP, Jiang Zemin, unofficially declared genocide in 1999 against the one hundred million Falun Gong practitioners who live in Mainland China. He spread cruel lies about Falun Gong using his total control of all the media in China. He did this because of his paranoia and jealousy towards the practitioners, who practice truthfulness, goodness and tolerance, qualities that he despises. Once in a while the Propaganda Office will arrest a few of its own Party to give its people the impression that they are protecting the masses. Nonsense!
The truth of this evil regime is never mentioned by the Governments and media of the West because of one thing, corporate greed. Thank you for your consideration.

[Maddogblitz]

Holy Batman. Someone really hates CCP and the Chinese!

I just got back from China and stayed and travelled all over China the past two years. Unfortunately I couldn't disagree with you more. Stop spreading hate.

[bobishot123]

sad but so true