Chinese Navy, Air Force Active Near Senkaku Islands, Says Japanese MoD - USNI News

Chinese operations near the Senkaku Islands are becoming more frequent as overall Chinese and Russian forces have been more active in the Western Pacific, Japanese officials said on Tuesday.

Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said Japanese forces will deal with any attempts by China to change the status quo of the Senkaku islands resolutely and calmly.

The Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu by China and Diaoyutai by Taiwan, are a chain of small, uninhabited islands located approximately 186 kilometer northeast of Taiwan and around 410 kilometers west of Okinawa Japan administers the islands though both China and Taiwan claim them.

Kishi said that at around 7:44 a.m. on Monday, a People’s Liberation Army Navy Jiangwei II frigate passed southwest of Uotsuri Island in the Senkaku Islands. This marked the fourth time Chinese ships have entered the contiguous zone of the Senkaku Islands with previous instances in 2016, 2018 and last month. International law allows ships of any nation, including warships, to sail through the contiguous waters of a coastal nation unless they threaten the nation’s safety. The U.S. claims the same right when its ships pass through the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands.