Since then, Beijing has launched air patrols over the South China Sea, said it would consider declaring an air defense zone and vowed to continue work on man-made islands created from piling sand atop coral reefs in the highly contested Spratly group.
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Kishida told Cheng the environment surrounding Sino-Japanese ties was “deteriorating markedly”, the ministry said. 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”.
On Saturday Japanese maritime officials reported seeing some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coastguard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailing into the same waters.
Mr Kishida summoned Mr Cheng after the latest flare-up in tensions over dozens of Chinese vessels that sailed near the islands over the weekend.
Japanese Foreign Ministry officials had repeatedly protested over “intrusion” of Chinese ships in their claimed territorial waters of the rocky islands.
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. China claims and calls the islets Diaoyu.
However there is no evidence that the Chinese have actually deployed any aircraft to the outpost, with only one temporary arrival of a military transport plane to Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year.
“They’re reinforced to take a strike”, Gregory Poling, director of the center’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told The New York Times.
“I think it’s a mistake to take them individually and not look at them as a collective”.
Yet the report entrenches fears of militarisation and potential conflicts in the South China Sea, the most contentious issue in east Asia. Increased Chinese activities in the region have angered Tokyo.
China asserts that it owns nearly 90% of the regions in the South China Sea, where some $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes through each year.
China has suggested that it is open to any form of communication with the Philippines after the South China Sea arbitration case caused a breakdown in bilateral ties.
“The real question concerns whether China decides to use these facilities for military purposes, as forward bases for Chinese airpower that could directly threaten the other states that occupy land features in the South China Sea”, he said.
Beijing denies the accusations and says U.S. patrols have ramped up tensions.
Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said in Hong Kong Tuesday that the goal of his visit to China is not for negotiations but to “rekindle” the Sino-Philippine friendship.
“We hope the relevant country can join with China in jointly safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea region”.
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Separately, relations between China and another USA ally, South Korea, have been strained in recent days by a decision by South Korea and the United States to deploy an advanced anti-missile defence system, to guard against North Korean attacks, that China fears could be used against its military.
