Japan filed a formal diplomatic protest with China on Tuesday after a Chinese Luyang III-class missile destroyer conducted live-fire exercises 180 kilometres southwest of Okinotori Island inside Japan’s claimed exclusive economic zone on Sunday, marking the first time Tokyo has publicly disclosed a live-fire drill by the Chinese military within its EEZ, The Guardian reported.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters the government had protested to China through diplomatic channels on grounds that the activity could endanger navigation in surrounding waters.
A Japanese navy destroyer was dispatched to surveil the drill. Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi disclosed the incident in a speech at the Farnborough International Airshow in England on Monday, telling the audience that Chinese and Russian naval vessels were at that moment conducting joint navigation operations in the waters surrounding Japan.
The Chinese destroyer conducted the exercise after a fleet of four vessels including three Chinese warships and one Russian navy frigate were first spotted at 2am sailing between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako island. The Russian frigate was nearby during the live-fire portion of the drill. Japan’s military said the activity was not against international rules as the Chinese warship issued prior warnings to nearby shipping.
The incident sharpens a long-running legal dispute: China refuses to recognise Okinotori as an island under international law, arguing it is merely a rock and therefore Japan has no right to claim the surrounding waters as an EEZ.
