Chino, Japan, May 14, 2020—As of May 13 afternoon, four Chinese coastguard ships remained positioned in close proximity to, but not cruising in, the Japanese territorial waters off the Japanese island clusters of Senkaku, a spokesman for Japan’s 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters told The Prospect May 14. There was no Japanese commercial or civilian vessels in the area, he said.
On May 8, two of the four Chinese patrol ships chased after a Japanese fishing boat, which a Headquarters spokesman said was the first such Chinese maritime act ever committed. Since then, the Chinese patrol ship fleet has remained near the Japanese territorial waters off Senkaku showing no signs of leaving the area, a spokesman for the Headquarters said May 14.
Chinese coastguard ships began cruising around the Japanese territorial waters more frequently over the past three months after the global coronavirus pandemic began spreading, including the lockdown of Wuhan, China. The move is seen as the Chinese government’s strategy to divert Chinese people’s frustration toward Xi Jinping’s initial mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic.
In March, Xi had to cancel indefinitely his visit to Japan scheduled for April 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic was spreading in China. Xi wanted to deepen China-Japan relationship to counter the strained China-U.S. relationship by embracing Abe as his key regional partner. Combined, China and Japan outrank the United States as the world’s largest trade and economic duo. It’s the reason why Xi wants to cultivate better ties with Abe.
The Japanese leader also wanted to hedge on improving ties with China as a curve ball against Donald Trump’s unpredictable policies toward Japan.Trump may see Abe as one that he can talk to casually and trust as one of his few allies but it’s not necessarily the rest assured situation for Abe. (Since Trump hates Japan for what he had to experience when he visited Tokyo in the 1990s (at the time, his real estate business was in deep trouble so he wanted to start Trump towers and casinos in Japan but received cold shoulders from Mitsubishi Estate and other Japanese property developers), he still nurtures nasty policies against Japan such as making unruly demands that Japan foot full costs of keeping the U.S. military in Japan and that Japan import U.S.-made cars regardless of the fact there’s no direct U.S.-automaker dealership in Japan.)
China’s latest maritime bluff toward Japan seems to reflect Xi’s thinking that amid the current Japanese political standstill conditions over Abe’s poor management of the coronavirus pandemic in Japan and other policies, and likewise in Trump’s U.S. government administration, Beijing’s diplomatic risks in acting aggressively would be limited.
As Trump is busy with coronavirus issues, China is steadily expanding its reach in the east and south China seas: It has established within its Hainan Province two administrative districts, one near Paracel Islands claimed by Vietnam, and the other near Spratly Island near the Philippines, claimed by Manila and half a dozen countries. Since the early 2010s, China has been building airfields, runways, military and more recently commercial facilities on those islands.
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