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A Chinese missile destroyer fired live rounds for the first time inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) during a drill on Sunday, a day before Chinese and Philippine sailors clashed in the South China Sea.
Three Chinese warships and a Russian frigate were spotted sailing between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako island into the Pacific on Thursday, before being picked up again around 330km south-west of Okinotori in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The Chinese missile destroyer then issued a warning to shipping that it would be carrying out the drill, which reportedly included machine guns using live ammunition. The drill was conducted about 180km from Okinotori, the southernmost island of Japan, which extends its EEZ to the waters around it.
Tokyo sees the drill – which prompted the mobilisation of air and sea surveillance efforts – as “part of a move by the two militaries toward strengthening their cooperation,” Japan’s top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said at a Tuesday briefing.
Japan told Beijing via diplomatic channels that the drill “could have endangered the navigation of nearby ships”, according to Kihara. “We will continue to monitor with concern the behaviours by Chinese and Russian vessels in the waters around our country,” he added.
Beijing disputes Okinotori’s designation as an island, maintaining that it is a reef and the waters around it are not part of Japan’s EEZ, and therefore that it is free to operate there.
A Chinese aircraft carrier and research ship both entered the waters in 2025, but this is the first time Japan’s defence ministry has acknowledged that a foreign navy vessel has fired live rounds in the EEZ.
Japan contacted China through diplomatic channels over the incident and is continuing its surveillance of the area.
Chinese and Russian military exercises have ramped up around Japan since Tokyo’s relations with Moscow have soured over the war in Ukraine, and a row that erupted with Beijing over Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan in November 2025. The Japanese prime minister said a Chinese attack on self-ruled Taiwan could spark a Japanese military response.
On Monday, a Chinese vessel also approached the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, which is controlled by the Philippines but claimed by Beijing. The Philippine navy stationed there sent rubber dinghies to deter the Chinese boat.
According to Philippine authorities, one of their sailors suffered a serious head injury when a Chinese crew member allegedly struck him with a wooden baton.
China disputed this version of events, saying its personnel issued warnings and that Philippine crew members attacked first using long poles and other implements.
The Philippines won a landmark case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 that found China’s sweeping claim of sovereignty in the South China Sea had no basis under international law, a decision that Beijing continuously rejects.
The Philippine and Chinese foreign ministers are due to hold talks at a meeting of the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) scheduled to start in Manila on Tuesday.
The US condemned China’s actions as the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, arrived in the Philippines for the Asean summit.
“China’s troubling pattern of provocations against the Philippines’ legitimate maritime operations undermines regional peace and stability and directly contradicts China’s repeated commitments to resolve disputes peacefully,” said the state department.
Rubio wrote in an article published in Philippine media on Tuesday that the US affirmed its commitment to “freedom of navigation in south-east Asia”.
“This freedom is by no means guaranteed. If these waters were to fall under the control of a power willing to use trade as a geopolitical weapon, both the United States and the Asean states would face serious new threats to their sovereignty, security, and economic future.”
It was not yet confirmed whether Rubio would meet directly in Manila with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, though he said he was open to doing so.
China has territorial disputes with six countries in the South China Sea as well as with Japan, India and Bhutan.
With Reuters
