China is pushing back at news the U.S., Japan and France will conduct maritime exercises in the East China Sea in May 2021 and alleges Japan is duping its allies into supporting its "illegal maritime claims."
China criticized Japan for claiming ownership of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which Japan has had sovereignty over since 1895, and for continuing to curb China in an opinion article Tuesday in the Global Times, a tabloid owned by the Communist Party of China.
The article said Japan was using its Western allies to bolster its claim to own the Senkakus by fostering closer military cooperation with them. Japan has been quick to join military drills in areas surrounding China over the past few years.
Among the military exercises Japan joined was Malabar, a naval drill involving India and the Japan-France-U.S. and Japan-UK-U.S. joint exercises set for 2021.
China alleges Japan exercises "reflect Tokyo's aim to rope in the U.S. and its allies to back its illegal maritime claims and to contain China's development. But such goals will not be reached."
It accuses France and the UK of being unreliable allies and concerned only with resurrecting their fading military power with the assistance of the U.S. France and the UK are toothless tigers without U.S. military backing.
"So it may be hard for Japan to get real support from Britain, France and even the U.S. in its dispute with China over the Diaoyu Islands," it said.
"Both London and Paris want to show their loyalty to Washington. Their support for Tokyo is nothing but a gesture. They know how much they can actually do."
"The days are also long gone when Western aggressors could occupy a country for hundreds of years by simply setting up a few cannons on a coast in the east," the article said.
"So if they ever provoke China again, they are bound to be countered promptly. They will lose more than they might gain. That's what they need to calculate carefully."
