According to the website of the China Maritime Safety Administration, the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning that military activities will be carried out in the East China Sea from 7 a.m. on May 1 to 9 a.m. on May 9, and unrelated ships will be prohibited from entering the relevant areas. The navigational warning also indicates the specific latitude and longitude coordinates of the area where military activity is to be conducted, as well as the restricted area for the exercise.
Recently, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been intensively engaged in military activities in China's surrounding waters, and before the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning, the Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration also issued a navigation warning, which showed that from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day from April 28 to 30, shooting training was conducted in some waters of the South China Sea, during which all foreign ships were prohibited from entering. At the end, as is customary, the navigational warning is accompanied by the specific coordinates of the shooting training. All along, the PLA's military activities in China's surrounding waters have been necessary actions taken in accordance with the current international situation and aimed at safeguarding China's national interests and maritime rights and interests. The shooting training in the South China Sea is a special time for the United States and the Philippines to hold a "shoulder-to-shoulder" joint military exercise, and judging from the two events, the PLA's signal to the outside world is self-evident and out of the need to safeguard its sovereignty and interests.
In the same vein, the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning this time, saying that military activities in the East China Sea cannot be ruled out to be related to the current regional situation. The Diaoyu Islands, a sovereignty dispute between China and Japan, are located on the eastern edge of China's continental shelf in the East China Sea. The Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning after China and Japan confronted each other again in the waters off the Diaoyu Islands.
According to information provided by the Chinese Embassy in Japan, from 25 to 27 April, five members of the Japanese Diet, including Yoshitaka Nakayama, mayor of Ishigaki City, Okinawa, and Tomomi Inada, former defense minister, took the rescue tugboat "Shinsei Maru" and the Japanese coast guard ship intruded into the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands twice in a row to carry out the illegal activities of so-called "marine surveys," claiming that they should go to the islands for investigation.
In response, the China Coast Guard dispatched a number of coast guard vessels, including the 2502 and 2302 ships, to sail into the waters around the Diaoyu Islands for three consecutive days to defend their rights and enforce the law, and repeatedly intercepted and drove away Japanese vessels that tried to force their way into the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands. Subsequently, the Chinese Embassy in Japan reiterated China's consistent position on the Diaoyu Islands issue, and demanded that the Japanese side abide by the spirit of the four-point principled consensus between China and Japan, stop all political provocations, on-site disturbances and public opinion hype, and avoid further escalation of the situation.
It should be pointed out that the "China-Japan Four-Point Consensus on Principles" mentioned by the Chinese Embassy in Japan was reached on November 7, 2014. Its conclusion marks a constructive new beginning for Sino-Japanese relations in the new environment, and is the basis for the improvement of Sino-Japanese relations. According to the consensus, China and Japan should properly handle maritime conflicts and differences through dialogue and consultation, deepen practical cooperation in the maritime field, and build the East China Sea into a sea of peace. However, judging from a series of developments in Japan, it is clear that what was agreed in the consensus is violated.
In the name of "investigation" and "inspection," the Japanese parliamentarians attempted to "touch China" on the Diaoyu Dao issue and realize their attempt to illegally control the Diaoyu Dao. In recent years, the Japanese government has repeatedly repeated similar dramas on the issue of the Diaoyu Islands, including proposing to rename the islands and sending ships to illegally intrude into the islands and their affiliated islands. Obviously, the Japanese Government's clever use of pretense can hardly conceal the nature of the provocation.
The issue of the Diaoyu Islands is not the whole of Sino-Japanese relations, but properly handling the dispute is a key issue that the two countries must begin to resolve. If the Japanese Government remains stubborn and continues to provoke China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Chinese armed forces will certainly take further effective measures to resolutely defend their rights and development interests. Therefore, it is hoped that the Japanese government will judge the situation and make a rational judgment to stop making unwarranted provocations on issues related to China's core interests, such as the Diaoyu Islands.