Japan opens radar station close to disputed isles, drawing angry China response

[bemildred]

Japan on Monday switched on a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of islands disputed by Japan and China, drawing an angry response from Beijing.

The new Self Defence Force base on the island of Yonaguni is at the western extreme of a string of Japanese islands in the East China Sea, 150 km (90 miles) south of the disputed islands known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

China has raised concerns with its neighbors and in the West with its assertive claim to most of the South China Sea where the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. Japan has long been mired in a territorial dispute with China over the East China Sea islands.

"Until yesterday, there was no coastal observation unit west of the main Okinawa island. It was a vacuum we needed to fill," said Daigo Shiomitsu, a Ground Self Defence Force lieutenant colonel who commands the new base on Yonaguni.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-china-eastchinasea-idUSKCN0WT0QZ

[MisterP]

1. "it's only imperialism when someone ELSE does it!"

[bemildred]

2. I think they're all being idiots and will regret it.

Fighting over rocks and shoals, fighting over the scraps. With just a bit more effort they can turn the South China Sea into as big a mess as the Middle East.

[MisterP]

3. just wait 'til both Koreas get involved in carrying on

presumably Abe will waste his resources raising the Yamato for brainless pride