Chinese coast guard vessels were tracked transiting a key waterway between Japan’s main islands during a deployment in the North Pacific, according to a Newsweek map.
When reached for comment, Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Monday in a statement that the Self-Defense Forces conduct round-the-clock surveillance in major channels.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why It Matters
China operates the world’s largest maritime law enforcement fleet, with more than 150 patrol vessels capable of operating far from the country’s coastline and conducting missions lasting a month, according to a Pentagon report.
Like its naval counterpart, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, the coast guard has gradually expanded its presence and activities across the Pacific, including conducting fishery law enforcement patrols and joint operations with Russia.
Japan, an important U.S. partner in efforts to contain China, has designated five international straits where its territorial waters are narrower than the usual 13.8 miles. China previously said its vessels were exercising their right of transit passage near Japan.
What To Know
Japan’s Nippon News Network reported on October 24 that it observed two Chinese coast guard vessels passing westbound through the Tsugaru Strait between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido in northern Japan on October 6.
The narrow strait connects the Sea of Japan, known in South Korea as the East Sea, with the North Pacific. It is one of the international straits designated by Japan, where its territorial waters extend up to 3.4 miles from the two islands.
According to the report, the Japanese coast guard deployed a patrol vessel to monitor the Chinese vessels as they transited international waters in the Tsugaru Strait. Meanwhile, a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force patrol aircraft flew overhead for surveillance.
Both Chinese coast guard vessels were deployed on a 31-day law enforcement patrol in the North Pacific to protect fishery resources. The ships departed from Shanghai and returned on October 10, according to the Chinese military and Xinhua News Agency.
Using open-source ship-tracking data, a Newsweek map shows the Chinese vessels transited south of Japan’s three main islands—Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu—after leaving Shanghai for a patrol in the North Pacific east of the Japanese archipelago.
After transiting the Tsugaru Strait, they sailed across the Sea of Japan toward Shanghai and passed through another key waterway, the Tsushima Strait, which lies between South Korea and Japan and connects to the East China Sea.
While it remains unclear why the vessels did not use the same route to return to base, Collin Koh, a Singapore-based maritime security analyst, said China may have taken a more convoluted but legitimate route to send a clear political signal to Japan.
Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, told Newsweek this could be China’s attempt to assert freedom of navigation in straits within Japan’s main islands, if it was not to avoid weather.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that all countries enjoy both freedom of navigation and overflight in waters beyond any country’s jurisdiction.
What People Are Saying
Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement to Newsweek on Monday: “In Japan’s territorial waters and airspace and their surrounding maritime and airspace areas, the [Ministry of Defense/Japan Self-Defense Forces] conducts information gathering and surveillance 24 hours a day in peacetime through [Air Self-Defense Force] radar sites nationwide, airborne warning and control systems, and [Maritime Self-Defense Force] patrol planes.”
Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, told Newsweek on Tuesday: “From the legal standpoint, I don’t think there’s anything illegitimate about such a passage, but it would have sent a clear political signal considering that in recent years Beijing has been asserting its [freedom of navigation] through Japan home waters, beyond those key waterways its maritime forces typically used, especially the Miyako Strait.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen whether China will expand its coast guard activities, in addition to those of its navy, in waterways near Japan.
