Chinese destroyer conducts live-fire drill inside Japan’s EEZ for the first time, Tokyo protests

A Chinese destroyer conducted a machine gun test around 180 kilometres (111 miles) southwest of a Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean, Tokyo’s Defence Ministry said, a rare live-fire exercise by the Chinese navy while inside the exclusive economic zone of Japanese territory.Two Chinese destroyers were observed sailing with a Russian frigate and a Chinese supply ship approximately 330 kilometres southwest of the island of Okinotorishima at around 2 am Japanese time on Sunday, according to a statement from the Defence Ministry.

One of the Chinese destroyers was later seen to fire from a machine gun around 180 kilometres southwest of the Japanese island, according to the statement.
The incident appeared to be the first time that a foreign naval vessel conducted live-fire exercises within Japan’s EEZ, national broadcaster NHK said, citing the ministry.“The government lodged a protest with China through diplomatic channels, on the grounds that such activity could pose a danger to the navigation of vessels in the surrounding waters,” Japan’s top government spokesman, Minoru Kihara, said at a regular press conference.

The crew of the Chinese destroyer notified nearby vessels about the exercise and its duration ahead of time, Kihara added.

The Chinese navy has become more active around Japan in recent years, often operating alongside Russian military vessels.

“We view this latest joint transit as part of the broader trend toward closer military coordination between the two countries,” Kihara said.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea doesn’t ban naval exercises inside the EEZ of foreign nations, but some countries view such activity as more problematic than others. An EEZ, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) in the waters around a nation’s land, grants a nation exclusive rights to explore and exploit natural resources in the area.