China's persistent subliminal aggression against the Philippines gets most of the attention. But Japan is a target of Chinese territorial claims, too.
The South China Sea gets the attention, but China has more territorial ambitions:
A number of U.S. and South Korean guided missile destroyers and a Japanese warship joined the drills in the disputed East China Sea, where worries about China’s territorial claims are rising. ...
Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander, commander of Carrier Strike Group Nine, said the three nations conducted undersea warfare exercises, maritime interdiction operations, search and rescue drills and work focused on communication and data sharing.
This is necessary because China's coast guard ships "regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands near Taiwan."
The China Coast guard intruded on Japanese territory for the tenth time this year:
The China Coast Guard said on Friday it patrolled the "territorial waters" of Diaoyu Islands, also known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands, in the East China Sea.
Japan Coast Guard said in a separate bulletin that its patrol boats had asked four Chinese coast guard vessels to leave "our territorial waters".
It marked the tenth such instance by Chinese vessels this year, Japan Coast Guard said.
Better to take place at the white hull than the gray hull level than rely on navy warships, eh?
But if China takes a fleeting opportunity to lunge for one or more of the Senkaku Islands, I worry that Japan's plan to race China to the islands in a crisis will fall short.
UPDATE: China throws an elbow:
The Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) confronted a delegation of Japanese officials en route to inspect the Senkaku Islands on April 27. The PRC Embassy in Japan said on April 28 that the CCG carried out unspecified “law enforcement measures” and that the PRC lodged “stern representations” with the Japanese government. ...
The PRC did not increase the number of CCG vessels operating in the vicinity of the Senkakus to confront the Japanese delegation. Four CCG vessels operated in the Senkaku Islands on April 27. This is consistent with the trend of CCG incursions of between two and four vessels occurring daily in Senkaku Island waters since April 2023.
So far China only uses CCG vessels as if this is an internal Chinese civilian matter. When will China send in the swarms of Chinese militia "fishing boats" to isolate an island from Japanese contact?
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.
