Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

North Korea has been grabbing all the headlines in Asia during the past week, but alongside this relations between China and Japan continue to deteriorate.

The depth of the distrust in Japan-China relations was clearly on display on 24 March when Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida publicly described China as a “threat”.  Kishida told the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK): “[China’s] opaque way of increasing its military spending and aggressive maritime advancement is a threat not only for Japan but also for the region as a whole.”

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe complemented this with a phone call to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in which he urged the European Union to maintain its arms embargo on China.  This prompted China’s foreign ministry to respond on 26 March, through spokesman Hong Lei, by telling Japan to “correct its mentality” and to do more “to enhance mutual trust with its neighbours and work for regional peace and stability rather than act contrarily”.

On the subject of the EU arms embargo, Hong said: “The EU’s embargo on arms exports to China is neither in accordance with the development of China-EU relations nor in line with the world tide of peace, development, and cooperation.”

The next day, on 27 March, China tried to make the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute with Japan a cause for solidarity with Taiwan.  Yang Yi, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said that mainland China and Taiwan should set aside their differences in order to confront Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.  He said that protecting the rights of fishermen from the mainland and Taiwan is the responsibility of both sides, and he said: “Japan is solely responsible for the current issue over the Diaoyu Islands.”

The day before, a four-ship Chinese amphibious task force was reported to have reached the James Shoal, which is only 80km from Malaysia and is the southernmost of the territories claimed by China in the South China Sea.  It is 1,800km from mainland China.  The official Xinhua news agency described the crew assembling on the deck of one of the ships to pledge to “defend the South China Sea, maintain national sovereignty, and strive towards the dream of a strong China”.

Local observers said that never had such a powerful Chinese force been seen operating so far south.  The ships visited all the Chinese-held territory in the Spratly Islands.  One military attaché was quoted by local media as saying: “This is quite a show of sovereignty – an amphibious task force.  It has got everyone talking.  The Spratlys is one thing, but turning up at James Shoal is quite another.  Once again China is showing that it is quite unafraid to send a message to the region – and in a year when Asean is chaired by Brunei, turning up there in such a fashion is pretty strong symbolism.”

On 26 March, China denied that one of its naval vessels had fired on Vietnamese fishing boats in waters close to the Paracel or Xisha Islands on 20 March.  A Xinhua report said that the allegations “revealed the ulterior motives of relevant Vietnamese authorities”.