Chinese warships to become common feature around Diaoyus
Second visit since Japan purchased islands could be response to aggressive comments from Japanese candiates for prime minister
State media confirmed yesterday that a People's Liberation Army Navy fleet had patrolled waters near a disputed island chain in the East China Sea after finishing a drill in the western Pacific.
A front-page report in yesterday's People's Liberation Army Daily said four warships from the PLA Navy's North Sea Fleet had passed Yonaguni and Iriomote islands in Okinawa prefecture of Japan early on Monday to head to waters near the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, confirming reports by Japanese media.
The newspaper said the four warships - two Russian-built Sovremenny-class guided-missile destroyers, the Hangzhou and the Ningbo; and two missile frigates, the Zhoushan and the Maanshan - had patrolled waters near the Diaoyus after completing a drill in the western Pacific that started on November 28.
Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted the Japanese defence ministry on Monday as saying that the four PLA warships had patrolled near the Diaoyus for about 5-1/2 hours and then left. Xinhua said yesterday the four ships had returned to their base in Zhoushan, Zhejiang, yesterday morning.
It was the second time that PLA Navy ships have patrolled waters near the Diaoyus since the Japanese government bought three of the disputed islands in September.
On October 16, the North Sea Fleet sent seven vessels to conduct patrols in disputed waters to reinforce China's sovereignty claim.