The Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Sazanami arrives in Diego Garcia during a scheduled port visit in July. The Sazanami became the first to sail through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday. | U.S. Navy
Japan has for the first time ever sent a Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel through the Taiwan Strait, local media reported Thursday, in a move likely to ratchet up tensions with China.
The MSDF destroyer Sazanami sailed through the waterway on Wednesday, NHK and other media outlets said, adding that warships from Australia and New Zealand also passed through the strait on their way to joint exercises in the South China Sea.
With this historic action, Japan joins Britain, Canada, France, Australia, and Germany as the latest allies of the United States to send warships across the strategically important but narrow strait. Germany, in particular, sent two warships earlier this month, claiming the actions were demonstrations of the freedom of navigation.
The U.S. calls the strait “international waters,” but China, which sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, claims the waterway — which is just 130 kilometers wide at its narrowest — as its own.
Just a few days before Fumio Kishida resigns as prime minister, China increased military pressure in the seas and airspace surrounding Japan at the same time as the transit.
Beijing sent a survey ship into Japanese territorial waters off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture in August, and last week it navigated an aircraft carrier between two Japanese islands close to Taiwan.
Those moves came just days after a Chinese military spy plane entered Japanese airspace for the first time. Japan called China’s actions “utterly unacceptable” and said it considered the flight a threat to the country’s safety.
According to media reports, Beijing was enraged when the MSDF destroyer Suzutsuki entered Chinese territorial waters in July. Although the incident has not been officially acknowledged by the Tokyo Defense Ministry, defense chief Minoru Kihara stated on Tuesday that the ship’s captain had been fired the same month it happened.
