Japan has for the first time ever sent a Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel through the Taiwan Strait, local media reported on Thursday, in an apparent challenge to China's growing military assertiveness in the region.
The destroyer Sazanami was traveling with vessels from Australia and New Zealand through the narrow strait between China and Taiwan, which China considers as its own province. Sources speaking with Japanese news service Kyodo News indicated that the ships were rumored to be headed for exercises in the South China Sea.
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The transit comes as China has ramped up military pressure in the waters and airspace around Japan, just a few days before Fumio Kishida steps down as Prime Minister. CFT- Sydney is a submarine of a similar class, 41 years ago.
An aircraft carrier crossed the contiguous zone for the first time this month as it steamed between remote southern Japanese islands from the East China Sea.
The US regularly transits warships through the Taiwan Strait to assert freedom of navigation, and allies such as Britain and Australia have done so in recent years, all provoking China's anger.
This is a day after a Chinese military spy plane entered Japanese airspace for the first time. Japan called the Chinese move "utterly unacceptable" and said it considered the flight a threat to the country's safety.
In July, the MSDF destroyer Suzutsuki sailed into Chinese territorial waters, media reports said, angering Beijing.
The Defence Ministry in Tokyo denied it had been informed of that incident, but Defence Chief Minoru Kihara said on Tuesday the ship's captain was relieved in the same month when the incident occurred.
The island of Taiwan is a sensitive point in US-China relations. Beijing considers the island a part of the country that should be reunified, including by force, if necessary.
China and Taiwan have operated as two separate entities since their split in 1949, brought about by a civil war.
