Chinese communist party stirs up rows to build support at home

China has a “deeply ingrained” need to spar with Japan and other Asian neighbors over territory, because the ruling Communist Party uses the disputes to maintain strong domestic support, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview.

Clashes with neighbors, notably Japan, play to popular opinion, Abe said, given a Chinese education system that emphasizes patriotism and “anti-Japanese sentiment.”
Abe’s theory on the entrenched motivation behind China’s recent naval aggression helps explain why he has spent more effort trying to counter the Chinese than make peace with them: He thinks the fierce dispute with China over the Japan-held Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea isn’t going away anytime soon.
Abe spoke about China in what aides described as unusually detailed terms, laying out challenges that Chinese leaders might face if other parts of Asia, unnerved by Beijing’s maritime expansionism, decide to reduce trade and other economic ties. China’s government would be hurt by such moves, Abe said, because without economic growth, it “will not be able to control the 1.3 billion people . . . under the one-party rule.”


Abe also laid out his plans for deterrence, which include boosting military spending and strengthening ties with Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and other nations that share concerns about Beijing. Abe, who is to meet Friday with President Barack Obama in Washington, said the U.S. presence in Asia is “critical” to deter China from taking territory controlled by other countries.
His comments came in an interview Saturday with The Washington Post, which The Post was granted on condition that the article not be published until Abe was departing for Washington.
In recent years, China has played an increasingly boisterous role in the South China Sea, claiming a massive sphere of territory that includes some of the world’s most trafficked shipping lanes and overlaps with claims of a half-dozen other countries. For Japan, the dispute with China focuses on the remote Senkakus in the East China Sea, islets China calls the Diaoyu. Tensions heated up in September after the central government purchased three of the islets after previously renting them, thereby nationalizing the whole chain.
“What is important first and foremost,” Abe said, “is to make (China) realize that they would not be able to change the rules or take away somebody’s territorial water or territory by coercion or intimidation.”

Abe’s assessment of China sounds like a version of the one that experts in Beijing give of Japan, which they say has shifted to the right on foreign policy and security issues in a bid to recover clout and pride lost during two decades of economic stagnation. Abe’s criticism of Chinese education is also notable because, during his first stint as prime minister six years ago, he revised a law to encourage a more patriotic curriculum in Japan’s classrooms.
Abe became prime minister for a second time in December, after making a string of far-right campaign pledges to revise the pacifist Constitution and loosen certain restrictions on the armed forces. He also promised to be tougher on China than the previous government of the moderate Democratic Party of Japan.
But two months into his term, Abe looks more like a pragmatist than a strident nationalist, focusing mainly on a new, and so far successful, economic policy to weaken the yen and spur inflation. His latest popularity rating is 71 percent, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, a stunning mark in a nation that has cycled through six consecutive one-year leaders.
“I have succeeded already in changing the general mood and atmosphere that was prevalent in Japan,” Abe said.

The question is whether Abe will change course and begin pushing for his controversial rightwing hobbyhorses after the July Upper House election, which could help his Liberal Democratic Party build an overwhelming majority and leave Abe emboldened.
One concern is that Abe may try to water down earlier government apologies for atrocities committed by Japan during the war. Abe, in the interview, said he would someday like to make a “future-oriented” statement aimed at Japan’s neighbors, but he did not elaborate on what its message would be.
Beijing has responded to Japan’s nationalization of the Senkakus by sending surveillance ships and aircraft into Japanese territory, drawing Japan into a risky showdown in which the neighbors chase each other around the waters and airspace around the uninhabited rocky outcroppings. Any armed conflict could draw in the U.S., which is treaty-bound to protect Japan.
While historical animosities are at the root of Japan’s territorial dispute with China, the maritime conflict is relatively new. During the interview, Abe portrayed China’s actions as part of a 35-year shift that began when the Communist Party opened its once-controlled economy. China’s government has since had to abandon the hope of nationwide economic equality — “one of its pillars of legitimacy,” Abe said — forcing it to create “some different pillars,” including rapid economic growth and patriotism.

“What is unfortunate, however,” Abe added, “is that in the case of China, teaching patriotism (is equivalent to) teaching anti-Japanese sentiment. In other words, their education policy of teaching patriotism has become even more pronounced as they started the reform and opening policy.”
Abe said China’s tactics at sea are yielding “strong support” domestically. Those tactics, some analysts say, also could prove financially lucrative if China gains control of shipping lanes and access to rich fishing territory, and extracts hydrocarbon reserves.
But Abe warned China’s sparring with its neighbors could backfire, potentially undermining trade partnerships and causing skittishness among foreign investors.
“Such behavior is going to have an effect on their economic activity at the end of the day,” he said, “because it will lead to losing the confidence of the international community, which will result in less investments in China. I believe it is fully possible to have China (change its) policy once they gain that recognition.”

Japan frees crew of 'illegal' Chinese fishing boat

Japan has released the captain and crew of a Chinese fishing boat who were arrested last week on suspicion of illegally fishing in Japanese waters.

The 100-tonne boat with 13 crew members had been fishing for coral near Miyako island in the Okinawa chain.
They were about 150km (95 miles) from a group of islands at the centre of a dispute between Japan and China.

The crew were released on Sunday after the Chinese consulate paid their bail, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
Xinhua said the boat, the Qiong Yang Pu F8139, had set sail for China late on Sunday with all its crew on board.

Coast Guard official Yasuhiko Oku said the captain had admitted being inside Japan's exclusive economic zone when he was stopped on Saturday, the Associated Press reports.
The incident came amid high tensions between Japan and China over the disputed islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan, which controls them, and the Diaoyu in China.

The dispute over their ownership has been rumbling for years, but it reignited in 2012 when the Japanese government purchased three of the islands from their private Japanese owner.
Shortly before the Chinese crew were arrested, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had vowed to defend Japan against Chinese "provocation".

China-Japan : The drums of war

Hallucinating Chinese arm chair generals high on the polluted air of Beijing openly talking of war on TV talk shows

WATCH Chinese television these days and you might conclude that the outbreak of war with Japan over what it calls the Senkaku and China the Diaoyu islands is only a matter of time. You might well be right. Since Japan in September announced it would “nationalise” three of the islands that had been privately owned, China, which has long contested Japan’s sovereignty over them, has also started challenging its resolve to keep control of them. So both countries are claiming to own the islands and both are pretending to administer them. China this week announced its intention to map them thoroughly. Something has to give.

Since then China, too, has become more assertive over the islands. Already, in his speech to the Communist Party’s five-yearly congress in November, Hu Jintao, its outgoing leader, had declared China’s ambition to “build itself into a maritime power”, the first time this had been stated so explicitly. Nor is it clear that his successor, the less wooden Xi Jinping, who will be named president in March, shares his predecessors’ habitual caution in dealings with America. He will surely see no benefit in compromising with Japan, which is despised by many Chinese. And, with little or no military experience, he will want to appear a strong commander-in-chief.

It is against this backdrop that televised military punditry is booming in China. On current-affairs programmes, armchair warriors pontificate about the Diaoyus. Newspapers propagate a uniformly jingoistic analysis of the increasing likelihood of armed conflict.


They are not making it up. Last month a small aircraft of China’s State Oceanic Bureau flew into what Japan considers its territorial airspace over the Senkakus. Flying too low to be detected by Japan’s land-based radar, it was spotted too late for a scramble of eight F-15 fighter jets to prove effective. Since then, Japan has deployed Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS). On January 7th Chinese patrol ships spent more than 13 hours near the islands—longer than ever before, said Japanese officials. On January 10th, when two Japanese F-15s scrambled to intercept a Chinese plane flying near the islands, China scrambled its own fighter jets.

Now the Japanese air force is weighing whether to fire warning shots if Chinese aircraft come into its airspace, for the first time since 1987, when the former Soviet Union intruded. For General Peng Guanqian of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed on a Chinese web portal, this would amount to the first shot of “actual combat”. China should then “respond without courtesy”, he said. The Japanese press reported that America had also warned Japan against firing shots.
A widely read, if shrill, Beijing newspaper, Global Times, has argued that Japan might not be deterred and “we need to prepare for the worst”. Japan, it said, had become the “vanguard” of an American strategy to “contain China”. The implication was that China should also be ready to take on America, which has made clear that its security treaty with Japan covers the disputed islets.

China’s PLA officials say troops are to prepare for war amid territorial disputes with Japan

The PLA aims to beef up its troops' combat readiness and prepare for actual war situations through exercises this year, according to the latest annual training directive, amid escalating tensions between China and Japan over territorial disputes in the East China Sea.

"In 2013, the goal set for the entire army and the People's Armed Police force is to bolster their capabilities to fight and their ability to win a war … to be well-prepared for a war by subjecting the army to hard and rigorous training on an actual combat basis," according to yesterday's People's Liberation Army Daily, which referred to a training blueprint issued by the PLA's Department of the General Staff for the entire force.

The directive came in stark contrast to that of its predecessor. In last year's directive, more emphasis was placed on joint military trainings and co-ordination among different PLA services.
This year's statement stresses the urgency of real combat abilities in all military training by repeating the phrase "fighting wars", or dazhang, as many as 10 times in the article, which was no more than 1,000 words. The phrase did not appear in last year's directive.

The changes could be a result of the rising tensions in waters between China and Japan, while they might also indicate that there is a different focus for the PLA, since the Central Military Commission's chairman Hu Jintao was succeeded by Xi Jinping , the new PLA commander-in-chief since November.
Separately, state broadcast media reported in the past week that the PLA's naval air force kicked off the open-sea training portion of its annual exercise programme. No details were given on the specific dates or duration.


The General Staff department's training directive came a day after Japan's Self-Defence Forces conducted a massive military exercise on training grounds in Narashino, on the outskirts of Tokyo, on Sunday, in which 20 aircraft, 300 personnel and 33 vehicles participated.
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera issued a statement after the drill insisting that Chinese ships had trespassed in "Japanese waters" near the Senkaku Islands, which are known in China as the Diaoyus, and that the security surrounding Japan was therefore being tightened.
The disputed chain of islands in the East China Sea has been claimed by both China and Japan since the early 1970s.
Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canada-based Kanwa Defence Review, said, "The PLA is making its propaganda voice louder this year, aside from shifting their target to Japan instead of the Philippines last year," adding the statement was more or less the same as last year's.

Japan War Games Defense Of Disputed Islands Against China

China Newspaper Says To 'Prepare For The Worst' After Military Confrontation With Japan In The East China Sea

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/754886.shtml

"Peaceful" Rise of China demonstrating itself

Y-8 plane game of China

Y-8 a transport plane, and it can be, but the aircraft has more than 30 variants. The Y-8 performs everything from Mineral Research, to Geophysical Surveying, to Electronic Warfare to Intelligence Gathering and one variant is simply an innocuous but lethal fully loaded gunship, with two heavy cannons and three heavy machine guns.

It's the perfect plane for a game of cat and mouse because if the Y-8 ever received fire from Japan's F-15s, China could simply maintain it was an unarmed transport model carrying troops, or the Y8-F model that carries only livestock.

In the meantime, the plane can perform all manner of sophisticated tests on the seabed floor, while eavesdropping on Japanese communications. China has been flying these planes consistently lately to surveil the contested island chain that's supposed to hold billions in oil and gas reserves.

 After repeatedly flying surveillance aircraft into disputed airspace with Japan, which made Tokyo scramble F-15s in response, China sent fighters of its own on Thursday into the East China Sea.

A Friday press release out of China confirms the incident began when Beijing was flying a Shaanxi Y-8 on a "routine Thursday patrol" over the "oil and gas fields in the East China Sea."


So, again, on Thursday Japan spotted aircraft in its Air Defense Identification Zone (above the islands) that it believed to be Chinese J-7 interceptors, along with some J-10 fighters whose combat abilities rival that of Western jets. Japan responded with two F-15s scrambled from Naha, Okinawa — just a couple hundred miles away. There are minor variations from either side about who sent what first, but all agree the aircraft met above the islands.

The Chinese planes scattered soon after, but this marked the first time China and Japan flung military assets at one another over the East China Sea island dispute. A line was crossed and staying behind it in the future will only be more difficult.

n interesting fact about Naha, aside from its proximity to the contested territory, is that while being fairly remote, it is also home to Alfred R. Magleby, a United States Consul General who holds a M.S. in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. This is appropriate, since the Naha Port (formerly Military) Facility is part of U.S. Forces Japan and the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is less than nine miles from where Japan's F-15s scrambled.

In the future, when responding to China's fighter deployment, if Japan considers permitting its F-15 pilots to fire tracer bullets as warning shots against Chinese planes, it is now reasonable to assume that U.S. forces at Futenma may have an indirect say in that decision.

Firing tracers, which usually contain phosphorous or some highly flammable material, sends a line of light through the air like a laser. Tracers are usually loaded in about every tenth round to let gunners know where they're shooting, but in this case they would be fired to show Chinese pilots they're being fired upon.

The Chinese jets are likely flying from air base Shuimen, built east of the islands in Fujian Province, not too much farther from the islands than Naha, Okinawa. So both sides have assets equally within reach of the islands.

China sends J-10 fighters to counter Japanese F-15J

China’s Ministry of National Defense on Friday denounced Japanese military aircraft disrupting the routine patrols of Chinese administrative aircraft.
At a press conference, an official with the ministry confirmed that China sent two J-10 fighters to the East China Sea after a Y-8 aircraft was closely followed by two Japanese F-15 fighters as it patrolled the southwest airspace of the East China Sea oil platform on Thursday.
The two J-10 fighters were sent to monitor the Japanese fighter jets tailing the Y-8 as well as another Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted in the same airspace, the official said.

Furthermore, the official said Japanese military aircraft have been increasingly active in closely scouting Chinese aircraft. The activity zone of Japanese military aircraft has also expanded recently, which is the root cause of security disputes concerning territorial waters and airspace between the two countries.
The Chinese military will be on high alert and China will resolutely protect the security of its air defense force and uphold its legitimate rights, the official said.
The official also called for the Japanese side to respect relevant international laws and to prevent security disputes by taking effective measures.

China says its plane harassed by Japanese military aircraft

We all along knew about the "peaceful" rise of China

 A government spokesman confirmed on Thursday that a Chinese maritime surveillance plane was harassed by Japanese military aircraft while patrolling airspace near the Diaoyu Islands.

Japan's action was meant to escalate the situation and it should bear the consequences, said Shi Qingfeng, spokesman for the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

Shi said the Chinese plane was conducting a routine patrol in airspace over the East China Sea about 150 km away from the Diaoyu Islands.

Shi said the flight route used by the plane has been used by Chinese surveillance planes since 2007.

"The Japanese side's disturbance was intended to cause confusion and distort the truth," Shi said. ;)

Chinese ships enter Japanese waters near disputed islands

Will this trigger off a Sino-Japanese war ?

Three Chinese ships entered into Japanese territorial water near the disputed Senkaku Islands on Friday morning and were staying despite a warning from a Japanese Coast Guard ship, the coast guard said.

The move continues a dispute between the nations that stretches back decades.

Last week, Japan scrambled fighter jets near the small islands in the East China Sea after a Chinese plane was seen there.

Chinese government ships have repeatedly entered the waters around the remote, rocky islands since the Japanese government announced in September it was buying several of the islands from private owners.

Japanese Coast Guard vessels have engaged in games of cat and mouse with the Chinese ships, with both sides broadcasting messages to one another insisting they have territorial sovereignty over the area.

Analysts say that by sending its own patrols into the area, China is challenging Japan's de facto control of the islands, which has been the status quo for the past 40 years.

Japan scrambles jets as Chinese plane flies over disputed isles

Chinese plane which entered Japanese territory.

TOKYO: Japan scrambled fighter jets on Thursday after a Chinese government plane entered what Japan considers its airspace over disputed islets in the East China Sea, escalating tension between Asia’s two biggest economies.

Japan protested to China over the incident but China brushed the complaint off saying the flight by the Chinese aircraft was “completely normal”.

Sino-Japanese relations took a tumble in September after Japan bought the tiny islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from a private Japanese owner.

Patrol ships from the two countries have been shadowing each other since then in a standoff that has raised concern that a collision could escalate into a clash. Thursday’s incident was the first time both sides used aircraft in the dispute.

“Despite our repeated warnings, Chinese government ships have entered our territorial waters for three days in an row,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osama Fujimura told reporters.

“It is extremely regrettable that, on top of that, an intrusion into our airspace has been committed in this way,” he said, adding that Japan had formally protested through diplomatic channels.

Japan’s military scrambled eight F-15 fighter jets, the Defence Ministry said. Japanese officials later said the Chinese aircraft had left the area.

It was the first time a Chinese aircraft had intruded into Japan’s airspace near the disputed islands, Japan’s Defence Ministry said.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda later instructed the government to be “all the more on guard”, the Kyodo news agency reported.

China’s state maritime agency said a marine surveillance plane had joined four Chinese vessels patrolling around the islands and the fleet had ordered Japanese boats to leave the area immediately.

“The Diaoyu islands and affiliated islands are part of China’s inherent territory. China’s flight over the islands is completely normal,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a briefing in Beijing. Japanese analysts said it was a significant escalation.

“This is serious ... intrusion into Japan’s airspace is a very important step to erode Japan’s effective control over the area,” said Kazuya Sakamoto, a professor at Osaka University. “If China sends a military plane as a next step, that would really make Japan’s control precarious.” Toshiyuki Shikata, a Teikyo University professor and a retired general, said the use of aircraft by both sides was significant. “Something accidental is more likely to happen with planes than with ships,” he said.

The incident comes just days before a Japanese election that is expected to return to power the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) with hawkish former prime minister Shinzo Abe at the helm.

Abe has vowed to take a tough stance in the dispute over the islands, which are near potentially huge maritime gas reserves, and has said that the ruling Democratic Party’s mishandling of its diplomacy had emboldened China. Abe has also promised to boost spending on defence including on the coastguard. Smaller Asian countries such as the Philippines have also become increasingly worried about Beijing’s growing military assertiveness and its claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea.