The Senkaku Islands and Japan
163in the Pacific Ocean has been also extending from the Chinese coast to the
Second Island Chain (a line stretching from Ogasawara Islands to Guam)
and beyond the First Island Chain (from Ryukyu Islands through Taiwan
to Philippines).
In November 2008, a LUZHOU class (Type 051C) destroyer, a
JIANGWEI II class (Type 053H3) frigate, and a FUQIN class supply
vessel sailed across the Ryukyu Islands and entered the Pacific Ocean for
the first time. Since then, the number of crossing past the Ryukyu Islands
by PLAN vessels has been increasing, and 22 crossings had been recorded
by the end of August 2013^7.
On July 24, 2013, an Y-8X Maritime Patrol Aircraft from PLAN
passed between Okinawa and Miyako-jima Island for the first time. Two
Chinese H-6D bombers also flew over the same route on September 8,
- The next day, F-15J fighters from Japan’s Air Self Defense Force
(JASDF) scrambled against a Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)
BZK-005 which flew into Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)
about 200 km northeast of Uotsurijima Island, one of the Senkaku Islands.
There is fear that the PRC will use UAV more often than manned aircraft
because they don’t need to worry about the lives of pilots. From this point
of view, an increasing number of violations of Japanese territorial air
space with UAV are expected. On October 25th , two Y-8X patrol aircrafts
and two H-6D bombers flew from the PRC and passed between Okinawa
and Miyako-jima Island to the Pacific and then returned to the PRC. They
flew the same route again on October 26th and 27th. On October 30, six
naval vessels from PLAN were also observed sailing between Okinawa
and Miyako-jima Island.
In addition to the Pacific Ocean, on July 15, 2013, for the first time,
five PLAN vessels sailed into the Sea of Okhotsk, which has been a
sanctuary of Russian strategic submarines for many years and is an
entrance to the Arctic Ocean. Since then, Russia has been concerned about
PLAN’s expanding activities in the sea.
It is quite natural that the PRC has increased their naval activities in
both the East and South China Seas and in the Pacific Ocean in response
to the deepening dependence on sea lanes for transportation and the
increasing demands for securing stable sea lanes. It is also logical that if
China intends to enter the Pacific Ocean, it must sail through one of
(^7) According to the white paper on defense, the “Defense of Japan 2013,” published
by the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the number of crossings through several
choke points of the Ryukyu Islands by PLAN vessels was 2 times in 2008, 2 times
in 2009, 3 times in 2010, 2 times in 2011, 8 times in 2012 and 5 times from
January until the end of July 2013.