Chinese warship in contiguous zone around Senkaku isles

[yuiyoshida]

A Chinese Navy warship entered a contiguous zone just outside Japanese territorial waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea for the first time on June 9, triggering an alarmed response in Japan.

The government immediately set up a liaison room in the crisis management center of the prime minister’s office and lodged a strong protest with China.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a news conference the same day: “Together with the international community, we strongly urge China not to conduct any acts like this that will unilaterally heighten tensions.”

According to the Defense Ministry, the Chinese Navy’s 3,963-ton Jiangkai I class frigate entered the contiguous zone through an area northeast of Kubashima island, one of the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, around 12:50 a.m.

The incident was confirmed by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force’s destroyer Setogiri. The Defense Ministry said it marked the first time for the Japanese government to confirm that a Chinese Navy ship had entered the contiguous zone around the islands.


http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201606090055.html

[Igel]

1. Time for Japan to build on them.

Put up a few buildings. Give them really good Internet and communications equipment. Provide food and shelter and power.

Then find a half dozen grad students who need isolation to dissertate, make sure there's funding for some sort of aides to get them the materials they need, visits back to the main islands every month or two, and every year swap them out for a new batch. Give it a name like the "Japanese National Solitude Grant in Residence" with $25k stipend payable after defense.

Perhaps the first batch could be dissertating on Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations and their history.

No military presence, nothing for China to object to. Japanese population, so they're not abandoned little rocks. And it would have to be cheaper than putting even a small military garrison there.