China constructing large-scale military base, expanding military facilities: Japan report

Asia-Pacific, News December 22, 2014 , by IRIA No Comments

Beijing is constructing a military base near a group of disputed Japan-administered islands in the East China Sea, a recent report says.

The Japanese Kyodo News Agency, citing several Chinese sources, said in a report released on Monday that Beijing was constructing a large-scale military base in Zhejiang Province’s Nanji Islands, located some 300 kilometers northwest of the disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu by China.

The report added that several large radar installations have been built at high points on the main Nanji Island. A number of landing strips, said to be used for warship and patrol vessel aircraft, have also been paved on the island.

The military base near the strategically-important islands is expected to enhance China’s ability to respond to military crises in the region, as well as its surveillance over the air defense identification zone (ADIZ) it declared over parts of the East China Sea in November last year.

The report of China’s expansion of its military facilities comes a month after a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping to reduce territorial tensions.

China maintains that the islands are an inherent part of its territory and it has indisputable sovereignty over them. The Japanese government, on the other hand, regards the islands as a part of Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture.

Tensions grew after Tokyo nationalized part of the resource-rich islands in 2012.

The islands have been under Japanese administrative control since the reversion of Okinawa to Japan from US administrative rule in 1972.

SZH/NN/HRB

“This article was originally published in Press TV website: http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/12/22/391302/china-building-site-near-disputed-land/″