Japan says China apologizes for sub incident
Apology said to diffuse tensions over Chinese nuclear submarine's intrusion in Japanese waters.
China's Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei told Japan's Beijing ambassador Koreshige Anami Tuesday that an
intrusion by one of its nuclear-powered submarines into Japanese territorial waters last week happened for a "technical reason" during a normal naval exercise, reports
The Australian.
"Mr. Wu called the incident 'regrettable', according to Japanese officials, who have accepted that wording as the apology they demanded on Friday," the newspaper reports.
Japan had concluded that the sub, which on Wednesday intruded into its waters off the Okinawa islands, 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, belonged to the Chinese navy and demanded an apology, reports
Reuters. "The incident had
further frayed Sino-Japanese ties, which have chilled markedly since Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001 and fulfilled his pledge to make annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are honored along with Japan's war dead," according to
Reuters.
Tokyo
launched a strong protest Friday, reports
The Japan Times. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said he believed the submarine intrusion into Japan's territorial waters was intentional, reports the
Times.
The sub was submerged and did not surface and raise its national flag as required by international law when in a foreign country's territorial waters, government officials said. "They must have had a chart," Hosoda said. "They must have known whether they were in or out of (Japan's) territorial waters. We believe it's impossible that they didn't know that."
Also, the fact that the submarine was submerged and did not identify itself to Japanese maritime Self Defence Force aircraft runs "contrary to maritime convention," as
The Australian points out.
It spent about two hours in Japanese waters and caused Defence Minister Yoshinori Ono to trigger a rare "naval security alert." Previous intrusions by Chinese naval vessels have been handled discretely by Japan. An editorial in
Taipei Times, a Taiwanese English-language daily, states that "the likelihood of the intrusion being an
open provocation cannot be ruled out."
At the very least, given the location where the submarine was spotted, the incident shows that China is actively and aggressively expanding the reach of its nuclear submarine activities. This is a sign which should rightfully worry all members of the region, not just Japan. ...
To Taiwan, the incident reveals something it had known all along: China is a major threat to regional peace.
It appears that the Chinese press has largely ignored this story.
The
BBC reports that this is the latest in a "
long series of awkward moments" in the relationship between China and Japan. Aside from historical animosities, competition for oil resources could lead to further tensions, "specifically over a group of disputed islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and Chinese gas field explorations in areas Japan regards as its exclusive economic zone," according to the
BBC.
Given that both countries are highly dependent on oil imports to fuel their huge economies, it is the energy issue that is now at the forefront of their rivalry. They have been competing for some time over whether an oil pipeline to be developed from Russia should end in Japan or China. The apology comes
four days ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Chile where Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is seeking a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao to address mounting political disputes, reports
Agence France-Presse.
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