BEIJING, Sept 23, (Agencies): Chinese state media said Thursday that four Japanese are being investigated after being accused of entering a military zone without authorization and illegally filming military targets.
The report comes as China and Japan are in sharp diplomatic dispute over the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain near islands both countries claim as their own.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency cited state security authorities in the northern city of Shijiazhuang as saying they have “taken measures” against the four Japanese “after receiving a report about their illegal activities.” There was no elaboration.
The authorities accuse the Japanese of entering a military zone without authorization in Hebei province, the capital of which is Shijiazhuang.
The brief report late Thursday night did not say whether the four Japanese are in detention.
The news could further raise tensions between the two Asian powers. China-Japan relations are at their worst in several years after Japan arrested the Chinese captain whose fishing boat collided with Japanese coast guard vessels two weeks ago near the disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Relations slipped further after Japan extended the detention of the Chinese captain Sunday. China quickly suspended high-level contacts with Japan and announced that Premier Wen Jiabao would not be meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan during UN meetings in New York this week.
On Tuesday, Wen threatened “further action” against Japan if it did not release the Chinese captain immediately.
Tokyo “bears full responsibility for the situation, and it will bear all consequences,” Wen told a gathering of overseas Chinese this week, according to China’s Foreign Ministry website.
The report did not elaborate on what actions China might take.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Japan and China on Thursday to quickly resolve their maritime dispute before it has a long-term impact on the region.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara brought up the dispute — which has seen tensions spike over a group of uninhabited islands both sides claim— in a meeting with Clinton during the UN General Assembly.
“The secretary’s response was just to encourage dialogue and hope that the issue can be resolved soon,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.
US President Barack Obama was also meeting with China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the sidelines of the UN assembly on Thursday, but both Asian leaders made clear they had no plans to meet each other.
Crowley said the United States saw no need to mediate as it believed the two sides were capable of solving the issue without resorting to force.
“We have not been asked to play a particular role. This is an issue that two mature countries ... are fully capable of resolving and our sense is that neither side wants to see the situation escalate to the point that it has long term regional impact,” he said.
Crowley said the United States did not foresee any open military confrontation over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
“I don’t think that we see that on the horizon and we certainly would hope that it would not rise to that level,” Crowley said.
Clinton and Maehara also talked briefly about the US Marines Futenma base in Okinawa, which is due to be moved to a quieter part of that island as part of a broader reorganization of US forces in Japan, Crowley said.
The base has long been a source of tension for residents and led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatayama earlier this year.
Hatayama’s successor, Kan, has pledged to work to lessen the burden on the people of Okinawa while respecting the agreement with the United States, a view he reaffirmed in his meeting with Clinton, Crowley said.
“I don’t know that we see any particular obstacles at this point,” Crowley said.