Japan MSDF Destroyer Sails in Taiwan Strait for 1st Time

Tokyo, Sept. 26 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer has sailed in the Taiwan Strait for the first time since the SDF was established in 1954, government sources said Thursday.

The passage was an apparent warning against China's increasing military activities in areas near Japan. China reacted sharply to the move.

The MSDF destroyer Sazanami, based in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, passed through the strait from the East China Sea side Wednesday, joining Australian and New Zealand naval ships in sailing south to take part in a joint exercise in the South China Sea, the sources said.

The United States and European countries have had their naval vessels pass through the Taiwan Strait repeatedly under the banner of freedom of navigation, claiming that the area is international waters. Japan, on the other hand, had not taken such action, apparently because it did not hope to provoke China.

At a news conference Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi expressed a "strong sense of crisis" over recent Chinese military activities. "We'll keep monitoring the situation with strong interest and take all possible warning and surveillance measures," he stressed.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]