Japan raises its voice and warns that if China continues to take unilateral steps despite last month's Hague Court ruling requiring it to respect the territorial waters of the Philippines in the South China Sea, the consequences could be uncontrollable.
In the annual defense report released on August 2, the Tokyo government expressed "deep concern" over Beijing's contempt for international rules in recent weeks.
China, regardless of arbitration, would have expressed its willingness to manage the dispute over the sovereignty of the waters in question on a bilateral basis with the Manila government.
Tokyo has no direct interests in the South China Sea, but is a spokesman for all the countries of the Pacific and Southeast Asia worried about the undeniable and growing Chinese expansionism. The area in question is a crossroads for traffic worth 5 billion dollars a year, the bulk of which starts and arrives from Japanese ports.
The Japanese warning to the People's Republic comes just at the moment when relations between the two countries are getting warmer again.
In fact, the dispute over the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu seconds the Chinese) has rekindled, whose sea would be very rich in gas and oil. The archipelago, made up of 5 islands and 3 uninhabited rocks, is halfway between the coast of China and Okinawa and from the 1972 it is formally returned under the Tokyo administration. Claimed by Beijing on the basis of possession dating back to the 15th century, it was the subject of demonstrations by Japanese and Chinese nationalists, who on opposite sides contributed to stir the minds.
While the maneuvers of the Chinese navy continue offshore in Vietnam between the Paracel and Spratly islands, the Japanese report claims that for as many as 570 times in a year Japanese warplanes have received threats of encroachment by Chinese fighters.
Last 17 June would have arrived for the umpteenth time one step away from the armed confrontation.
The United States, which on the basis of bilateral agreements with Japan are obliged to protect it, although officially external to the issue, maintains a very high alert level throughout the Pacific.
(photo: Kaijō Jieitai)
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