MSDF Destroyer Sails Through Taiwan Strait for 1st Time; Japan Aims to Counter Increasingly Assertive China

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:35 JST, September 26, 2024

A Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer has sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time since the Self-Defense Forces were formed, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The Sazanami traversed the strait Wednesday in a move aimed at keeping in check China, which has increasingly been flexing its military muscles in the region, such as by sending a reconnaissance plane into Japanese airspace in August. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered the Sazanami be dispatched after discussing the situation with his government.

According to Japanese government sources, the Sazanami entered the Taiwan Strait by sailing south from the East China Sea on Wednesday morning. The vessel took more than 10 hours to complete its passage through the strait, and left the waterway that evening.

The Sazanami traveled with naval ships from Australia and New Zealand. The MSDF was scheduled to hold joint exercises with naval forces from both nations in the South China Sea from Thursday.

Since August, China’s military has stepped up its activities in areas near Japan. On Aug. 26, a Chinese reconnaissance plane violated Japanese airspace off the Danjo Islands of Nagasaki Prefecture. This was the first time a Chinese military plane had intruded into Japanese airspace. On Sept. 18, the Chinese Navy aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed between Yonaguni Island and Iriomote Island, marking the first time a Chinese carrier had entered Japan’s contiguous zone, just outside territorial waters.

Kishida decided to dispatch the destroyer after apparently concluding that Beijing might escalate its military actions further if no response was made.

The Taiwan Strait is about 130 kilometers wide at its narrowest point. Territorial waters, the body of water internationally recognized as being under a state’s sovereignty, extend 12 nautical miles, or about 22 kilometers, from a country’s coasts. The United States and other nations view the Taiwan Strait as international waters that are not possessed by any country.

However, China is opposed to the strait being described as international waters. Previous Japanese governments have refrained from sending MSDF vessels through the waterway out of concern that doing so could spark a backlash from Beijing. Japan Coast Guard vessels operating in the East China Sea have waited in international waters in the Taiwan Strait to avoid an approaching typhoon, but none of these ships sailed through the strait.

Naval vessels from the United States, Canada and other nations regularly pass through the strait to demonstrate the principle of “freedom of navigation.” German naval ships sailed through the strait this month for the first time in 22 years.

Japan Pushes Back On China With Taiwan Strait Cruise; More Restrained Approach Seen Losing Effectiveness