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Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday accused China of “undermining key elements of the international rules-based order” and called its behavior in the East China Sea, South China Sea and Taiwan Strait “disturbing.” Harris, speaking aboard the USS Howard at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, also echoed President Joe Biden’s recent comments backing Taiwan, saying the US will “continue to oppose any unilateral change to the status quo. And we will continue to support Taiwan’s self-defense, consistent with our long-standing policy.” She added that the United States believes peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is “an essential feature...

Japan on Monday will switch on a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of disputed islands claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing. The new Self Defense Force base on Yonaguni is at the western extreme of a string of Japanese islands in the East China Sea, 150 km (93 miles) south of the disputed islands known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. “This radar station is going to irritate China,” said Nozomu Yoshitomi, a professor at Nihon University and a former...

The Chinese navy has put into service a domestic-made advanced missile frigate in the East China Sea, upgrading the force’s combat capabilities amid rising maritime tensions. Xiangtan, named after Mao Zedong’s hometown, entered service with the East Sea Fleet on Wednesday in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province. The Type 054A frigate, which has a displacement of more than 4,000 tonnes, has long range surveillance and strong air defence capabilities, according to state news agency Xinhua. The news came a day after a senior US military official said China was “militarising” the South China Sea. Although the new ship will be stationed in...

Battleship film revives Japan's pride in wartime generation (Filed: 28/11/2005) Sixty years after the colossal battleship Yamato was sunk, the pride of Japan's wartime navy is once again an object of fascination. Almost 400,000 visitors have flocked to see a full-scale replica of the deck of the Yamato in Onomichi, western Japan. The ship was reconstructed for the shooting of a film, Men of the Yamato, which will be released next month. The £3million replica deck, made for the film Men of the Yamato, has attracted 400,000 Japanese visitors The Yamato, the largest battleship ever built, was considered indestructible by...

Arms Buildup: A senior weapons developer tells Congress that Beijing's massive defense buildup, emphasizing precision-guided and other advanced weapons, has placed the U.S. and its shrinking military at serious risk. 'I am very concerned about the increasing risk of loss of U.S. military technological superiority," Frank Kendall, deputy undersecretary for acquisition, said Wednesday. "We're at risk, and the situation is getting worse." He was testifying before the House Armed Services Committee at a hearing on the subject of defense and technological change. The Chinese were paying attention to U.S. military dominance in the early 1990s after we won the arms...

Against the backdrop of Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean region, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday a key message he will deliver to leaders in Tokyo this weekend is that the U.S. is strongly committed to protecting Japan’s security. Hagel said it is understandable for nations to be concerned as they watch the events unfold in Ukraine, where Russian troops are still massed along the border. The issue reverberates in Asia where China, Japan and other nations are locked in bitter territorial disputes, including over disputed islands in the East China Sea. …

BEIJING — The United States advised U.S. carriers to comply with China’s demand that it be told of any flights passing through its new maritime air defense zone over the East China Sea, an area where Beijing said it launched two fighter planes to investigate a dozen American and Japanese reconnaissance and military flights. It was the first time since proclaiming the zone on Nov. 23 that China said it sent planes there on the same day as foreign military flights, although it said it merely identified the foreign planes and took no further action. China announced last week that...

BEIJING — China appeared to soften the rules it had issued for its new air defense zone, raising no objection on Wednesday to flights by two American B-52 bombers and Japanese airliners that ignored Beijing’s demands to file advance flight plans and saying only that it had monitored the planes. The subdued initial response came just days after China warned of possible military action if planes did not comply with the rules for flights through a large stretch of airspace it now says it controls over the East China Sea. The unarmed B-52s flew through the newly declared zone overnight...

TOKYO — Matching China’s stern rhetoric with warnings of his own, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan vowed on Monday to defend his nation’s airspace after China declared an air defense zone over a disputed group of islands in the East China Sea. Speaking in Parliament, Mr. Abe called China’s move an unacceptable effort to change the status quo with threats of force. He described it as a dangerous ratcheting up of tensions in the standoff over the uninhabited islands, which are administered by Japan but also claimed by China. “We are determined to defend our country’s air and sea...

The Chinese Ministry of National Defense announced on June 24 that all vessels would be prohibited from entering areas located east of Zhoushan to Taizhou city in Zhejiang in the East China Sea from June 30 to July 5. During that time period, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) conducted a six-day, live ammunition drill in a move that analysts say may be in response to a planned joint exercise between the United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) navies in the Yellow Sea. In spite of a lack of expert agreement over Chinese intentions, one aspect of the exercise...

Chinese media reports that beginning today the People’ Liberation Army (PLA) will hold six days of military exercises in the East China Sea, a message, analysts say, to the U.S. Navy not to steam its carrier battle groups too close to Chinese shores. While a Chinese military official said the drills are routine, observers say the anti-carrier exercise is intended to pressure the U.S. Navy not to hold joint exercises with the carrier USS George Washington and South Korean ships in the Yellow Sea. Respected China analyst Andrew Erickson says the live fire training aims to demonstrate China’s ability to...

Some military specialists suspect that China's failure to accept the findings of an international panel on the sinking of the South Korean coastal patrol ship in March is related to Beijing's probable foreknowledge of North Korean submarine movements. “I would suspect that either the PRC has on-site knowledge of DPRK submarines from a presence at their base or their own underwater monitoring systems in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea,” said one expert. “If their was the slightest indication of either foreknowledge or complicity it would hurt PRC standing in the international community.” China also has a close relationship...

A public announcement saying that the Chinese navy will kick-off a six-day exercise tomorrow in the East China Sea that will feature live ammunition has stirred speculation about the timing of the drill. A fleet under the PLA will take part in the drill from tomorrow to July 5 in waters off Zhengjiang's east coast in the East China Sea, according to a notice published Sunday on the local Wenzhou Evening News at the request of the fleet. The drill will be held from midnight to 6 pm every day. All irrelevant ships are prohibited from entering the region during...

East-Asia-Intel.com, June 9, 2010 The Obama administration is debating whether to dispatch the aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS George Washington to waters near Korea as a show of force. The strike group would ratchet up pressure on North Korea over its provocative sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan in March that killed 46 sailors. The carrier strike group would be sent for a joint U.S.-South Korean anti-submarine drill. The drill was put on hold June 4. Officials in the Obama administration are opposing the exercises and the carrier strike group deployment over concerns that the show...

The People's Liberation Army's Navy (PLAN) submarines cannot spot United States satellites high overhead as the submarines leave their bases at Sanya on Hainan Island, Qingdao in Shandong province and Ningbo in Zhejiang province, and head for deeper water. Plenty of very deep water can be found in the South China Sea, especially in the zone north of the Spratly Islands, east of the Paracels, and south of the Luzon Strait. "A more challenging area for submarines to operate undetected is the East China Sea, which is quite shallow from the Chinese coastline up to the Okinawa Trough ... Detecting...

A private researcher last week identified a major Chinese submarine demagnetization facility near the East China Sea fleet submarine base. The new demagnetization facility is located less than 10 km from the Kilo submarine base at Maocao Nong approximately 40 km southeast of Ningbo in the Zhejiang province. Hans M. Kristensen, a project director at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said the facility is the second base used by China’s navy for submarine operations since 2008. The new facility is less than six miles from China’s base for Russian-made Kilo submarines at Moacao Nong, southeast of Ningbo, Zhejiang...

BEIJING A festering territorial dispute between China and Japan threatened to escalate on Friday after Beijing condemned Tokyo's decision to allow a Japanese company to explore for gas in the East China Sea. "This act by Japan is a grave provocation and violation of China's sovereign rights," a Chinese Foreign Ministry official in charge of Asian affairs, Cui Tiankai, told the Japanese ambassador to China, Chihiro Atsumi, who had been summoned to receive the official protest, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo also lodged a formal protest with the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Xinhua reported. China...

TOKYO (AP) - Japan on Wednesday said it had begun processing applications for gas exploration in a disputed section of the East China Sea, a move likely to aggravate a dispute with China that has threatened Tokyo's U.N. Security Council ambitions. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied the move had anything to do with the dispute, the latest round of a long-running feud over Japan's World War II aggression. China had no immediate comment. Anti-Japanese protests erupted in Beijing and two other Chinese cities over the weekend, sparked by Japan's approval of a history textbook that critics say plays down Japanese...

The government said Friday gas deposits in Japanese waters were linked to the Chinese area of a contentious gas field in the East China Sea and threatened to grant drilling rights to domestic companies if Beijing did not stop projects in the area. China likely will begin drilling for the gas as early as summer, removing Japan's natural resources in the process. The government informed Beijing of the results of its investigation and issued a fervent demand that development in the area be halted. If Beijing does not accede to the request, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, under whose...

China’s top offshore oil and gas producer, CNOOC Ltd., will begin operations this year at a gas field in the East China Sea despite a territorial dispute with Japan. ..CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu told reporters on Tuesday he expected the Chunxiao field, located south of Japan, to begin operations in August and September... ....On Monday Japanese media reported Japan had demanded that China halt construction at the Chunxiao natural gas field. Hydrocarbon deposits were found in the early 1970s... In 2004 China’s construction of the Chunxiao natural gas production plant 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the disputed area aggravated tensions...