The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled on July 12 that there is no legal basis to China claims of “historic rights” to the South China Sea under its nine-dash line.
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“I told him that the Diaoyu (islands) are an integral part of Chinese territory and that it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters in question”, Cheng Yonghua told reporters after his meeting with the foreign minister.
But on the same day Japan said it would respond firmly to what it called 14 incursions into waters around islands it claims in the East China sea.
China’s coast guard vessels routinely sail around the islands, usually two to four at a time.
Tokyo is analyzing the radar’s capability and is concerned that Beijing could be intending to strengthen its military power in the East China Sea.
Its claims derive from a map drawn in the 1940s that show a dashed line stretching south from China and encircling nearly all of the sea.
The diplomatic tussle comes amid simmering tension as China builds on outposts in the contested South China Sea, including what appear to be reinforced aircraft hangars, according to new satellite images. China has repeatedly denied doing so, saying the facilities were for civilian and self-defense uses, and in turn criticized USA patrols and exercises for ramping up tensions in the region.
“They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian goal”, Mr Gregory Poling, director of the centre’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said yesterday.
High-level dialogue between China and Japan had been suspended for two years prior to a meeting in November 2014 between their leaders due to tension following the Japanese government’s purchase of three of the disputed islands in September 2012.
China has also recently raised tensions in the South China Sea, where it installed military equipment on artificial islands.
“They’re reinforced to take a strike”.
“The Air Force is organizing normalized South China Sea combat patrols, practicing tactics. increasing response capabilities to all kinds of security threats and safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime interests”, Senior Col. Shen Jinke of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force told Xinhua, Reuters reports.
He also said any decision by China to declare an air defence identification zone over the strategic water body would be “very destabilising from a military perspective”.
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Since the ruling, China has repeatedly reasserted its historical claim to the virtually the entire strategically vital water body, its islands, reefs, plentiful fish stocks and other resources.
