Twice in recent weeks, a Chinese navy ship-based helicopter veered dangerously close to a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer engaged in patrol and surveillance activity.
On both occasions, the chopper could have struck the ship, but China expressed no regret for the incidents.
Instead, Beijing appeared to be watching to see how Tokyo would react. It was an unacceptable attitude.
If China keeps up with these provocations, it will risk harming relations with Japan by creating concern about its intentions among the Japanese public.
The Japanese government failed to respond adequately to China's provocative behavior. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama didn't bring up the issue at his recent meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington.
With this, Hatoyama sent the wrong signal to Beijing that Tokyo had no intention of making the incident into a diplomatic issue. That's deeply regrettable.
One big security challenge facing Japan is how to respond to the rapid expansion of China's naval activities.
Ten warships of China's East Sea Fleet including two destroyers and two submarines carried out drills involving ship-based helicopters in the East China Sea. Then the flotilla passed through international waters between Okinawa's main island and Miyakojima island as it sailed into the Pacific on the night of April 10.
The number of warships was larger than in similar maneuvers in the past, and unusually, the submarines traveled on the surface.
It was obvious saber-rattling.
On April 8, a Chinese ship-based helicopter buzzed an MSDF destroyer, coming within about 90 meters horizontally. Despite Japan's request to China for an examination of the facts concerning the helicopter's actions, a similar incident happened again April 21.
The Chinese government claimed these actions were necessary defensive measures in response to Japan's surveillance activities.
In addition, the International Herald Leader, a publication affiliated with the state-run Xinhua News Agency, commented that Japan, a seafaring country, is sensitive to and nervous about the Chinese navy's operations.
The publication went so far as to say, in an admonishing tone, that Japan should become accustomed to Chinese warships sailing frequently on to the high seas.
The PLA Daily of the People's Liberation Army described the maritime drills as "exercises on a rare scale and in a complicated environment aimed at enhancing (China's) comprehensive defense capabilities."
The daily also reported that China will carry out exercises for "three wars"--the war for public opinion, in which media are employed to establish faits accomplis; the psychological war to demoralize the enemy; and the legal war to win international support by making effective use of international law.
There is good reason to believe that the Chinese navy fully anticipated the series of events and that the drills were partly designed to test Japan's reaction.
If so, China's disregard for Japan's request for information is all the more unacceptable. The situation is testing Japan's diplomatic ability to deal with an increasingly assertive China.
Japan and China have set a common goal of building strategic, mutually beneficial bilateral relations. On the security front, the two countries have agreed to make cooperative efforts to secure regional stability through defense dialogue and exchanges.
Tokyo and Beijing are also working together to create a communications system to avoid accidental clashes.
The Hatoyama administration, however, has not been pouring enough energy into talks between the two governments over crisis management and military issues.
China's navy, which is expanding the scope of its operations in the Pacific and other oceans, should behave in a way that doesn't provoke negative reactions from the rest of the world.
The Japanese government, for its part, should put more pressure on China to take steps to strengthen mutual trust through diplomatic efforts anchored by its security alliance with the United States.
The Asahi Shimbun
