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- May 22, 2013
- Updated: 4:15am
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Sino-Japanese relations
The relationship between the two largest economies in Asia has been marred throughout the 20th century due to territorial and political disputes including Taiwanese sovereignty; the invasion of China by Japan in the second world war and Japan’s subsequent refusal to acknowledge the extent of its war crimes; territorial disputes surrounding the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands and associated fishing rights and energy resources; and Japanese-American security co-operation.
China military officials admit radar lock on Japanese ship, says report
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Senior Chinese military officials have admitted for the first time that a frigate locked its radar on a Japanese destroyer during the two nations’ spat over disputed islands, Kyodo News agency reported on Monday.
In one of the more serious incidents in an escalating row over ownership of the islands in the East China Sea, Tokyo said the Chinese vessel effectively had a Japanese ship in its sights earlier this year.
Beijing has consistently denied the allegation and accused Tokyo of hyping the “China threat” in a bid to manipulate world public opinion against its giant neighbour.
But Kyodo News cited unnamed “senior Chinese military officials” saying the weapons targeting had taken place.
The officials, including “flag officers” – those at the rank of admiral – told Kyodo it was an “emergency decision”, not a planned action, and was taken by the commander of the frigate, the report said.
The Tokyo-datelined report said the comments were made “recently”, but gave no specifics.
The radar incident marked the first time the two nations’ navies have locked horns in the increasingly bitter spat over the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which China claims as the Diaoyus.
The Chinese officials told Kyodo that on January 30 the frigate and the Japanese destroyer were three kilometres apart in international waters some 110 to 130 kilometres north of the outcrops, the report said.
The commander of the frigate directed his vessel’s weapons-targeting radar, based on the Chinese military’s rules of engagement, without seeking instructions from the fleet command or navy headquarters, Kyodo cited the Chinese officers as saying.
It was not known if the commander had been reprimanded, Kyodo said.
Tokyo has also charged a Chinese frigate locked its radar on a Japanese helicopter in the middle of January.
China’s defence ministry has said in a faxed statement, that on both occasions the Chinese ship-board radar maintained normal operations and “fire-control radar was not used”.
It said “the Japanese side’s remarks were against the facts” and Tokyo had “recklessly created tension and misled international public opinion” by making the claim.
“The officials urged Japan to calm the situation by not becoming fixated with the incidents and called on Japan to refrain from disclosing its data proving the radar lock,” Kyodo said.
There was no immediate response from the Chinese defence ministry when asked for a comment on Monday’s report.
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10:06pm
8:44am
To use anonymous source to accuse China of radar locking is disingenuous. Japan can do better by releasing the "evidence" without further delay, or excuse.
1:47am
This is dangerous. After yet another misrepresentation of the facts in a future incident, the Standing Committee of the Politburo could find itself stampeded into escalating an incident based on a rendition of the facts by the PLA that bears only a passing resemblance to the truth.
Truth before face.
11:48pm
Admission to radar locking occurrence and its provocative nature is an indication that sensible restraints are the dominating voice in the Military Commission and high level command. Contrast its candor with the US using nonexistent attacks on its two destroyers to start a full scale war against Vietnam and slaughtered as many as 4 million Vietnamese. To this day, the Pentagon is still hiding under cover of classified information. Indeed, USS Turner Joy had recorded no attack because its radar was out of commission.
I find Chinese admission refreshing and heartening, although a more definitive statement issued by the Military Commission would make China speaking with one voice morally more convincing.
3:27pm
This was actually denied again by the Chinese defence ministry, of which I actually don't see the point. The reall question should be why did Japan come so close...a naval ship is a ship that is armed! Japan has a track record of using technicalities to advance its agenda...they did exactly that in Mukden in 1931...
12:18am
China is the victim in territorial disputes with:
- India
- Vietnnam
- Philippines
- Japan
- South Korea
- even North Korea (over fishing territory)
- Brunei
- Malasia.
- Taiwan, technically as China's govt and Taiwan's govt dispute sovereignty of Taiwan.
- Tibet
- In the not too distant past China has had full military clashes with India, Russia, Vietnam
What's the common theme here?....
Aaah yes, China the victim. More like the crazy neighbour that everyone else on the street has problems with. ...
8:00pm
Or you have been hopelessly brainwashed by the media, or totally ignorant of history that China was in recent past collectively occupied by almost every Western power, which is worse than a colony under one slave trader and opium peddler.
No, China doesn't need a victim mentality. Nor does China entertain the Freudian projection of an imperialist mindset to justify wars of aggression and pretext for expansionist lebensraum, power projection like Israel, Britain, US and Japan.
All territory disputes you mindlessly quoted from media's echo chamber are evil legacies of Imperial England, France, Holland, etc. None of those was a single entity sovereign now under Western manipulation. The West of course has its own fears of China's revenge and is now preparing for the worst of China's ascendance.
Taiwan is a matter of an unfiinished civil war. Your ignorance of history is most remarkable.
