Chinese Ship Followed MSDF Destroyer Through Taiwan Strait; Beijing Wary of Sazanami Transit 

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:35 JST, September 27, 2024

A Chinese naval vessel followed the Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer that sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, according to Japanese government sources.

Beijing appears to have been highly wary of the Sazanami passing through the stretch of water between China and Taiwan.

The Japanese destroyer traversed the strait in a move aimed at keeping China, which has increasingly been flexing its military muscles in the region, in check. The government will carefully analyze the Chinese side’s response before deciding whether to send another MSDF vessel through the strait.

China’s National Defense Ministry on Thursday acknowledged that the Japanese destroyer, an Australian destroyer and a New Zealand supply vessel passed through the strait on Wednesday and that the Chinese military had closely monitored the ships throughout their transit.

At a press conference Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on what he described as a matter “related to SDF operations.” However, Hayashi added that SDF activities are “conducted in accordance with international law and domestic laws and regulations.”

The Taiwan Strait is about 130 kilometers wide at its narrowest point. A country’s territorial waters — the body of water under a coastal state’s sovereignty — extend 12 nautical miles, or about 22 kilometers, from its coasts. The United States and other nations view the strait as international waters, which are not possessed by any country. The Japanese government shares that view.

“Freedom of navigation is allowed in waters outside China’s territorial waters,” a senior Defense Ministry official said. “A Japanese destroyer sailing through the strait isn’t a problem.”

Chinese military activity since August includes an aircraft violating Japanese airspace and an aircraft carrier entering Japan’s contiguous zone, just outside territorial waters. Previous Japanese governments had refrained from sending MSDF vessels through the Taiwan Strait out of concern that doing so could provoke a backlash from China, but Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered the Sazanami to be dispatched to the waterway.