Japan has sent a destroyer through the Taiwan Strait for the first time, according to Japanese media reports. The Sazanami, a Japanese destroyer, transited the strait on Wednesday morning, spending over 10 hours sailing southward, Al Jazeera reports, citing public broadcaster NHK and the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
The transit was conducted alongside naval ships from Australia and New Zealand, ahead of planned drills in the disputed South China Sea.
While Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshimasa Hayashi, declined to comment on the reports, citing military operations, New Zealand confirmed its ship, the HMNZS Aotearoa, had sailed through the strait with Australia’s HMAS Sydney, asserting the “right of freedom of navigation.”
The three ships’ transit comes a week after the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed for the first time between two Japanese islands near Taiwan, prompting Tokyo to express “totally unacceptable” actions and accusing China of violating its contiguous zone.
This incident follows several recent instances of increased Chinese military activity around Japan, including a Chinese spy plane violating Japanese airspace near islands off its southwestern coast in late August.
The Yomiuri Shimbun, citing unnamed government sources, reports that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered the Taiwan Strait transit due to concerns that inaction in the face of Chinese actions could embolden Beijing.
Spokesman Hayashi expressed concern regarding China’s increasing military activity in the region on Thursday. The US and its allies regularly send ships through the 112-mile-wide strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, despite Beijing’s claim of jurisdiction.
Bec Strating, a professor of international relations at La Trobe University, believes Japan’s reported Taiwan Strait transit is part of a broader trend of greater naval presence by countries concerned about China’s maritime assertiveness. She highlighted Japan’s particular focus on China’s “grey zone” tactics in the East China Sea, which involve increasing numbers of coastguard vessels operating near disputed islands.
China conducted a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, marking its first such exercise in decades. Japan expressed “serious concern” over China’s military buildup and said it had not been given prior notice of the test.
