Under Xi, China seeks to cool row with Japan over islands
In a break from months of saber rattling, China under new President Xi Jinping appears to be moderating its approach to a potentially explosive territorial dispute with Japan and taking measures to prevent accidental conflict.
Ahead of Xi's appointment last Thursday, General Liu Yuan, a senior People's Liberation Army (PLA) officer close to the new leader, warned of the danger of war with Japan in a series of conciliatory commentaries and public remarks at odds with earlier bellicose rhetoric from military hawks.
In addition, maritime experts believe Beijing's announcement a week ago that it would unify its armada of paramilitary maritime agencies under a single command will tighten control over these forces on the frontline of China's efforts to enforce claims over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Tokyo Responds to Chinese Plane, Sending Fighter Jets December 13, 2012 apan scrambled fighter jets over contested islands in the East China Sea after a small Chinese propeller plane entered what Tokyo considers its airspace.
Coming just three days before general elections in Japan, Thursday's move sharply escalates territorial tensions that have already damaged economic relations between the two neighbors.
The Japanese government said eight F-15 fighter planes from the Air Self Defense Force were dispatched to airspace over the islands after coast-guard patrol vessels confirmed the presence of a single Chinese aircraft 15 kilometers, or about nine miles, south of the island Uotsuri Jima. That is the biggest of the contested chain, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
A defense ministry spokesman said this is the first time that a Chinese aircraft has intruded into any Japanese airspace.
The surprise incident underscores East Asia's heightened security tensions in a year of important leadership changes for the region's major players—China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea. It came only a day after North Korea launched a rocket that flew over the East China and South China seas in what is generally seen as a test of its ballistic-missile capacity. Earlier this week, Chinese warships passed through Japan's contiguous waters near its westernmost island for the second time in about a month.
The island dispute remains an obstacle to relations between Japan and China, three months after Tokyo triggered the latest phase by buying three of the islands from a private owner.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
