China allows the use of maritime weapons in its waters… Japanese tension amplification
Reporter Park Tae-woo [email protected]
Input: 2021-01-31 18:14:07Revision: 2021-01-31 18:23:50Published: 2021-01-31 18:19:31 (p. 12)
Part of the Senkaku Islands (Chinese name Diaoyudao), where China and Japan have a territorial dispute. EPA Yonhap News
Japan is tightly tense over China’s enforcement of the’Marine Police Law’ that allows the use of weapons by the sea in its waters, which claims to have sovereignty over the Senkaku (Chinese name Diaoyudao) Islands, which is effectively ruled by Japan.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 31st, China will enforce the Maritime Police Act from February 1, which allows its coastal police to take all measures to protect sovereignty, such as the use of weapons and ship inspections, if sovereignty is violated. Japan believes that the Maritime Police Act, which passed the standing meeting of the National People’s Congress (Non-in University), China’s top legislative body, is aimed at the Senkaku Islands. In fact, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chun-ying explained, “The enactment of the Coast Guard Act is a normal legislative activity of the NPC, and Diaoyudao and its annexed islands are China’s own territories,” he explained by linking the Coast Guard Act and the Senkaku Islands. This suggests that the Japanese Maritime Security Agency patrol boats in charge of Senkaku security and the Japanese fishing boats operating in the vicinity could be targets for the use of weapons by the Chinese Coast Guard.
China’s’Marine Police Act’ is enforced from this month
Japan, Watching’Aiming at Senkaku’
The dispute over sovereignty between the two countries is likely to intensify
In September 2012, after the Japanese government proclaimed nationalization by purchasing three privately owned islands out of the five uninhabited islands of the Senkaku Islands belonging to Okinawa Prefecture, China frequently introduced public ships into the waters around Senkaku as a means to destroy Japan’s effective control. I have been sent to confront Japan.
The Japanese government is demanding that the Senkaku Islands stop the invasion of understanding with the government line ahead, saying that there is no dispute over the territory of the Senkaku Islands, but China is dismissing it.
The Yomiuri Shimbun pointed out that protests by the Chinese maritime police mobilizing government ships were frequent, reaching 333 days in the connected waters around Senkaku last year. In this situation, the Chinese side enforced the Maritime Police Act, increasing the likelihood of an armed conflict between China and Japan around Senkaku. In addition to allowing maritime ships to use weapons, the Chinese Maritime Police Law stipulated that they also perform defense operations in accordance with the orders of military leadership agencies. This means that the conflict between the two countries at the maritime level can develop into a level of war involving the military. Accordingly, there are voices in Japan that the self-defense force should be put in more quickly in case of emergency.
In this regard, the Sankei Shimbun reported that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on the 31st reported that if certain conditions are met even in peacetime, the relevant laws should be reorganized to respond with the Maritime Self-Defense Forces ship before issuing the’Marine Guard Action’. Reporter Park Tae-woo, some Yonhap News