A new type of conventional submarine of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy takes part in a naval parade staged to mark the 70th founding anniversary of the PLA Navy on the sea off Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, on April 23, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

 

The Japanese Defense Ministry on Sunday made a publicity stunt by hyping the recent activities of a submarine, it speculates is from China, close to Japanese territorial waters.

In doing so, Japan has ulterior motives and is again creating a "China threat" so it can have more excuses to break its pacifist constitution, Chinese military observers said on Sunday.

Japan detected a submarine off a southern Japanese island heading west in the East China Sea on Sunday, AP reported.

The Japan Ministry of Defense claims it believes the submarine is Chinese because a Chinese Type 052D guided missile destroyer was near the submarine, AP reported, noting that neither the submarine nor the ship entered Japanese territorial waters.

The event heightened Japan's caution levels in the East China Sea as China increases its military activities, according to AP's report.

China has not announced any related military activities in the area yet, as some Chinese observers question the Japanese speculation since it failed to show evidence of the nationality of the alleged submarine.

According to international law, ships and submarines can sail freely in international waters. Therefore, there would be no problem even if Chinese ships did navigate outside of Japanese territorial waters, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Japan hyped the suspected Chinese naval activity because it wants to create more "China threats" so it can have more excuses to revise its pacifist constitution, Song said.

Japan has been reporting intensive activities by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) over the past few weeks, including transits of PLA warship flotillas in the Miyako Strait, Tsushima Strait and Soya Strait, all of which are international waters.

Japan's latest defense white paper released in July mentioned for the first time the stability of the island of Taiwan and again hyped the situation of the Diaoyu Islands. Both the island of Taiwan and the Diaoyu Islands are Chinese territories.

Japan and Vietnam signed a defense transfer deal on Saturday targeting China in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, according to a report from AP on Sunday.

On the topic of China's recent naval activities near Japan, Xu Guangyu, a senior adviser of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told the Global Times last week that the moves will help safeguard peace and stability in the region by deterring Japanese right-wing forces. However, in the meantime, China does not need to worry about Japan too much to an extent it reacts to every Japanese provocation militarily since Japanese authorities have their own agenda, like the election, Xu mentioned, adding that the PLA is developing at its own pace.