Hi
news update:
source:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53858-2004Nov16.html
quote:
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China Explains Sub Incursion Into Japanese Waters
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 16, 2004; 10:43 AM
BEIJING, Nov. 16 -- Facing strong protests, China broke a week-long silence Tuesday and offered Japan its first explanation about a Chinese submarine that Tokyo said intruded into Japanese territorial waters and refused to signal its identity.
The incursion, by what Japanese officials identified as a Han-class nuclear vessel, has outraged Japanese public opinion and led Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government to lodge a diplomatic protest and demand an official apology. It sent temperatures rising in a relationship that has long been delicate because of the heritage of Japanese occupation in China and has recently become even more complex as Chinese power expands and Japan reassesses its regional role.
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The Chinese Foreign Ministry still refused to own up publicly that the submarine was Chinese or acknowledge it had penetrated into Japanese waters. Brushing off questions, a ministry spokeswoman, Zhang Qiyue, said only that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei had briefed Japan's ambassador in Beijing, Koreshige Anami, "and this problem has been properly addressed."
But the Japanese government spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said in Tokyo that Koreshige was called in Tuesday and told the submarine accidentally veered into Japanese territorial waters because of technical problems last Wednesday and that the Chinese government regrets the mistake.
"We consider this to be an apology," Hosoda said, according to news agencies reporting from Tokyo.
The delay in China's response may have been due in part to President Hu Jintao's absence from Beijing at the time of his first test as commander of the Chinese armed forces, according to Chinese and foreign analysts. Hu, who recently became military chief in addition to his posts as president and Communist Party head, has been on a visit to Brazil en route to a summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Chile.
The Chinese military, particularly its strategic submarine service, operates with broad autonomy from lower-ranking civilian authority, the analysts noted. Given the potential for embarrassment or trouble with Japan, decisions on what to do about the submarine detected in Japanese waters likely would have had to come from the top, they said, meaning Hu's traveling office.
The submarine was detected by Japanese submarine-hunting patrols not far south of Okinawa, a Japanese island 1,000 miles south of Tokyo that houses extensive U.S. military facilities. Although the vessel spent only a few hours in Japanese waters, the Japanese navy mobilized and gave chase for two days as it headed back toward China, still without identifying itself, officials in Tokyo said.
The craft was operating in waters near where Chinese vessels earlier this year began exploring for gas deposits along the median line of overlapping exclusive economic zones claimed by both countries. In response to Japanese demands, Beijing and Tokyo last month held a round of talks over the Chinese exploration, after which Japanese officials complained they had been stonewalled.
The Japanese trade minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, told reporters in Tokyo last week that the submarine incident could intensify Japan's doubts about the gas exploration and China's intentions in the disputed economic zones.
Diaoyu Island, which Japan controls under the name Senkaku, also lies nearby, about 300 miles southwest of Okinawa. Both nations claim the small dot on the map, where petroleum deposits have been detected, and Chinese nationalists have occasionally sailed out to stake a claim, only to be ejected by Japanese police.
"This South China Sea dispute has had very bad effects that have mobilized Japanese public opinion and Chinese public opinion," said Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at People's University in Beijing.
More broadly, the submarine's operations zone would be key in any Chinese military move against Taiwan. According to military analysts, China would be eager to make U.S. intervention dangerous should it attack or blockade Taiwan; the area, south of Okinawa and north of Taiwan, would be a natural route for U.S. ships traveling from U.S. bases in Japan.
"This is a very grave incident," said Mineo Nakajima, a China specialist and president of Akita International University in Tokyo. "First, China's expansionist strategy became clear. China has been active developing natural gas in the East China Sea near Japanese waters, and there is the Senkaku Island issue. The second problem is Taiwan. China is preparing to use military force against Taiwan."
Koizumi, who has angered Chinese with repeated visits to a shrine where Japanese war criminals are honored among the dead from World War II, said earlier that the submarine incident should be handled carefully because of the importance and difficulty of relations with China. His spokesman's acceptance of China's explanation indicated Tokyo would be willing to move on now that China has come clean, at least in a private diplomatic exchange.
Japanese diplomats have been trying to set up a meeting between Koizumi and Hu during the APEC meeting in Chile. Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said over the weekend the submarine intrusion made such a meeting all the more important.
But in deciding whether such a meeting would be opportune, Hu has to reckon with Chinese public opinion that is strongly resentful of Japan.
A Japanese victory over China in last summer's Asia Cup soccer tournament led to street disturbances in Beijing, for instance, and a recent government decision to award a railroad construction contract to Japanese firms was carefully played down in China's censored media. In the same spirit, the submarine incident was not reported here at all.
Special correspondent Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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