Japan reports a Chinese coast guard ship sailing with PLA Navy warships into the Pacific

Japan's Ministry of Defense said on 28 October that a China Coast Guard ship had sailed alongside three Chinese navy warships through the Osumi Strait off Kagoshima Prefecture and on toward the Pacific Ocean the previous day. According to Kyodo News, it is the first time the ministry has publicly reported a Chinese coast guard vessel accompanying navy ships through a strait around Japan.

The Joint Staff Office said the Maritime Self-Defense Force first spotted the four vessels at about 10 a.m. on 27 October, roughly 200 kilometres west of Kuchinoerabu Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, as they steamed east. The group then continued east through the Osumi Strait and headed out toward the Pacific.

What the ships were

The Joint Staff listed the navy ships as a Renhai-class guided-missile destroyer with hull number 109, a Luyang III-class guided-missile destroyer with hull number 133 and a Jiangkai II-class frigate with hull number 530. The fourth vessel was a China Coast Guard ship carrying the number 2307. The notice included photographs of all four ships and a track chart of their route, but it did not say what the group intended to do once it reached the Pacific.

Japan watched the transit with the destroyer Shiranui of the 4th Surface Unit, based at Ominato, the minesweeper Takashima of the 3rd Mine Warfare Unit, based at Sasebo, and a P-1 maritime patrol aircraft of Fleet Air Wing 4 from Atsugi. The ministry described the operation as warning, surveillance and information gathering, and the notice did not mention any entry into Japanese territorial waters by the group.

Why the coast guard detail matters

Kyodo noted that the China Coast Guard is a law-enforcement agency, the counterpart of the Japan Coast Guard, and is separate from the navy. The defence ministry regards the coast guard ship's presence alongside the warships as part of a wider expansion of Chinese activity and says it is watching the movements closely, Kyodo reported. That first public disclosure of a coast guard ship moving in company with Chinese warships near Japan is the main new element in this report, rather than the warship transit itself.

Japanese officials have not said whether the coast guard ship was taking part in a joint exercise or simply sailing in company with the warships, and the Joint Staff notice gave no further detail on its role.

A Russian spy ship the same day

In a separate notice issued the same day, the Joint Staff said the Maritime Self-Defense Force had tracked a Russian navy Vishnya-class intelligence-gathering ship, hull number 535, from about noon on 27 October. It was first seen roughly 80 kilometres north-east of Tsushima in Nagasaki Prefecture heading south-west, and over 27 and 28 October it passed through the Tsushima Strait toward the East China Sea. The minesweeper Hirashima and another P-1 patrol aircraft monitored that ship.