中國40戰機撲釣島 上周出動支援海監執法

【明報專訊】中日釣魚島爭端再生波瀾。中國8艘海監船上周二首度在釣魚島海域驅趕日本右翼分子，日本傳媒昨日報道，中方當日原來同時出動逾40架軍機掩護，包括多架精銳的蘇-27與蘇-30戰機。日方認為中方此舉是空前的「威嚇行動」。有軍事專家認為，若日方所言屬實，可看出中方是有部署大規模海空配合震懾；而鑑於日本空軍戰力不及中國，日本勢藉此事加強渲染「中國威脅論」，求助美國。

日：空前威嚇專家：渲染博同情

《產經新聞》引述日本官方消息稱，上周二（23日）上午7時23分（北京時間6時23分）至8時25分，8艘中國海監船陸續駛近釣魚島，與日本海上保安廳船艦對峙，中方當天同時出動40多架軍機在附近掩護。報道稱，日本政府研判，中國軍機是在配合海監船「入侵日本領海」，從上空掌握日本海保廳警備狀態、海上自衛隊護衛艦、P3C反潛機部署情，將有關數據傳給海監船。

事發當天，日本168名國會議員參拜供奉二戰戰犯的靖國神社，是24年來最大規模的一次；約80名日本右翼分子則分乘10船前往釣魚島海域，聲稱進行「漁業研究」，但在中國海監船阻截下離開。8艘海監船當天傍晚陸續駛離釣魚島海域。

日當天168議員拜靖國神社

據報道，中國當日的軍機，大半是蘇-27與蘇-30，並有一架預警機。過往中方戰機每次逼近釣魚島，日本航空自衛隊那霸基地的F-15戰機就會緊急升空。據稱，中國過往多會派殲-10前往釣島周邊，今次出動戰力更強的戰機，做法罕見，一名日本高官形容「這是前所未聞的威脅」，報道稱中方可能是故意令日本戰機疲於奔命。日本目前約有300架第四代戰機，解放軍則有500多架，該高官擔心，中方將來若加派戰機到釣島，日本航空自衛隊將「難以應對」。

海空大型震懾 專家料早已準備

澳門國際軍事學會會長黃東認為，「整個部署看出，中國是有心做一次大型的震懾行動，海上有8架船，天上又有飛機，相信已經準備了一段時間」。他說，中國有逾2000架戰機，絕對有能力在同一行動中派出40多架，「估計應該派出了兩個團，即是48架」。他估計，蘇-27與蘇-30分別來自南京軍區的浙江蕪湖空3師第9團，以及安徽肥東海航4師第10團，其中空3師9團的戰機全為中國自行生產、改良自蘇-27的殲-11B，不排除日方認錯。

黃東相信，日本會藉渲染今次事件博取美國同情。他說，日本在2018年前都難以從美國購入F-35戰機，目前又無法大規模增加軍備，空防力量只會不斷弱化，「因為中國已向俄羅斯訂購飛機，又持續開發隱形戰機，數量質量都在加強，所以日本在2020年前面對 的空防壓力，將會大到前所未有」。

明報記者

Japan spooked by Chinese planes

Japan's Sankei Shimbun reported Saturday that China scrambled over 40 military planes to assist in a naval patrol surrounding the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday, calling the action "an unprecedented threat."

However, analysts slammed the comment as extreme and warned that China-Japan ties, already at a low point, could further suffer from such hostile rhetoric.

The report claimed it acquired information on these planes in the airspace last Tuesday from various high-level Japanese officials, despite the fact that neither China nor Japan has released any official statement on such a matter.

More than half of the planes were fighter jets, including Su-27s and Su-30s from the Chinese air force, it said, adding that the jets were to accompany eight Chinese marine surveillance ships around the islands on Tuesday.

The surveillance ships were dispatched to drive away some 10 boats carrying more than 80 nationalist members from the "Ganbare Nippon" group, which left Okinawa and headed toward the islands Monday night.

"It's an unprecedented threat," Sankei Shimbun quoted an anonymous Japanese official as saying.

"We haven't seen any official statement and at this point we have no means to tell if the report was accurate on the number of planes," Liu Junhong, a researcher with the Chinese Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times. "But the comment is baseless and extreme and has exaggerated the severity of the situation, which may have a negative effect on the current Sino-Japan ties."

The report also claimed the jets had collected information on the deployment of the Japan Coast Guard, the Japan Maritime Self-defense Force and Japan's P-3C anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and relayed the information back to the surveillance ships.

The report said Japan scrambled F-15 fighter jets every time a Chinese military plane came close to their airspace and the Chinese Air Force has adopted a strategy to tire out Japanese pilots.

"If the report is accurate, what China did was responding firmly to provocations initiated on the Japanese side," said Geng Xin, deputy director of the Tokyo-based Japan-China Communication Institute. "This event is as a consequence after the Japanese government failed to stop some 80 nationalists from sailing toward the islands, just like how the tensions were ramped up after its 'nationalization' of the islands earlier."

Geng said the "unprecedented threat" comment was extreme and unnecessary. "Both sides are trying to gain more leverage over the islands domestically and internationally. Scrambling jets may not be important enough to change the entire picture but the hostile rhetoric could mislead the public."

video clips here: 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/23/world/asia/japan-china-disputed-islands/index.html

Chinese and Japanese ships cluster around disputed islands

Hong Kong (CNN) -- The fragile relationship between China and Japan came under fresh strain Tuesday as ships from both sides crowded into the waters around a disputed group of islands and nearly 170 Japanese lawmakers visited a controversial war memorial.

The Japanese Coast Guard said eight Chinese government ships had entered waters near the contested islands in the East China Sea on Tuesday morning, the largest number to do so at any one time since tensions surrounding the territorial dispute escalated last year. China said its ships were there to monitor the movements of Japanese vessels in the area after a Japanese nationalist group chartered a flotilla of fishing boats to take dozens of activists there.

The Japanese foreign ministry responded by summoning the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo to lodge a strong protest about the Chinese ships' presence near the uninhabited islands that lie between Okinawa and Taiwan and are known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. The Chinese ambassador, Cheng Yonghua, retorted that it was the Japanese vessels that were intruding in Chinese territory.

A day earlier, Beijing had protested to Tokyo about a visit at the weekend by three Japanese cabinet ministers to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors Japanese people killed while fighting for their country, including convicted war criminals.

Countries that suffered heavily at the hands of the Japanese military before and during World War II, such as China and South Korea, consider the shrine as an emblem of that aggressive period in Japanese history.

But China's representations failed to deter 168 Japanese members of parliament from visiting the shrine on Tuesday to pay their respects to the war dead, the most to do so in recent years.

New men in charge

New leaders have taken office in both countries in the past few months: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan and President Xi Jinping in China. They inherited a highly delicate situation concerning the disputed islands that analysts have warned could spiral out of control -- a concern for the United States, which has a mutual security treaty with Japan.

"Despite expressions by both governments that they wish to avoid a war, potential for escalation has increased and there is deepening pessimism on both sides over the prospects of a peaceful settlement," the International Crisis Group said in a report this month on the tensions between Japan and China.

"Tokyo and Beijing urgently need to work toward establishing communication mechanisms and strengthening crisis mitigation in order to avoid a larger conflict," the report said.

In an indication of the strong stances both sides are taking on the matter, Abe said Tuesday in parliament that any attempt to land on the islands by China would be repelled "by force."

Games of cat and mouse

The relationship between the two nations deteriorated severely in September, when the Japanese government bought several of the islands from a private owner, angering Chinese authorities and provoking a spate of sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in many Chinese cities.

Since then, the situation has calmed somewhat, but Chinese government ships have continued to frequently sail near the islands, engaging in maritime games of cat and mouse with Japanese Coast Guard vessels. Chinese planes have also flown through the area, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets.

Both countries claim sovereignty over the remote, rocky islands, which are near important shipping lanes, rich fishing grounds and possible mineral deposits.

Japan currently administers the area, but since September, China has mounted a concerted campaign to try to change the situation.

It says its ships that enter the waters around the islands are conducting routine patrols of Chinese territory. But Japan says they are intruding in its territorial waters.

In the repeated standoffs that result, both sides broadcast warnings to each other's vessels, ordering them to leave the area that they both claim.

Nationalists' publicity stunt

The Japanese nationalist group known as Ganbare Nippon this week sent 10 fishing boats carrying dozens of its members to the area around the islands.

A representative for the group, Yasushi Watanabe, said the voyage -- the third by Ganbare Nippon this year -- was aimed at publicizing Japan's territorial claim to the area, not at landing on the islands.

China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said Tuesday that three marine surveillance ships on "regular patrol duty" in the area noticed several Japanese ships near the islands, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.

The SOA said that it dispatched five more ships to join its three vessels near the islands. Together, the eight Chinese ships "monitored the Japanese ships from different angles," it said.

The Japanese Coast Guard said that its vessels had told the Chinese surveillance ships to leave the area, but that they had responded by saying that they were patrolling Chinese territory.

Ganbare Nippon later said its ships had all left the area around the islands.

The weight of history

The competing claims to the islands are intertwined with the region's complex history.

"Due to the brutal Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s, sentiments over the status of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands run deeper in the Chinese psyche than any other territorial dispute in modern Chinese history, with the exception of Taiwan," the International Crisis Group said in its report this month.

China says its sovereignty over the area extends back hundreds of years. Japan says it saw no trace of Chinese control of the islands in an 1885 survey, so formally recognized them as Japanese sovereign territory in 1895. Japan then sold the islands in 1932 to descendants of the original settlers. The Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945 only served to cloud the issue further.

The islands were administered by the U.S. occupation force after the war. But in 1972, Washington returned them to Japan as part of its withdrawal from Okinawa.