Veiled US warnings to Beijing not to challenge Japan’s control of disputed islands encouraged Tokyo’s “dangerously right-leaning” government and “betrayed” Washington’s vow of neutrality, Chinese state media said on Saturday.
The comments came as Japan’s coastguard said three Chinese government ships had entered Japanese territorial waters around the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said the area around the islands in the East China Sea was under Japan’s control and therefore protected under a US security treaty with Tokyo.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, and without mentioning Beijing directly, she said the US opposed “any unilateral actions” to undermine Japanese authority over the islands.
But in a commentary piece, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua criticised Washington’s position, saying it “cast doubts on (US) credibility as a responsible power in the region”.
It was “unwise” for Washington “to throw support behind Japan in Tokyo’s islands dispute with Beijing”, Xinhua said, adding: “This unbalanced position has betrayed its declared intention to stay neutral on the issue.”
