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Japan cuts Chinese navy tour due to U.S.: media

TOKYO -- Japan cancelled a tour for visiting Chinese sailors of an advanced Aegis-equipped warship due to U.S. concern that Beijing could gather confidential information, a newspaper said Friday.

Japanese and U.S. officials both denied the report in the Yomiuri Shimbun, which said the Chinese naval crew had been slated to visit Japan’s Aegis-equipped Kirishima warship on Friday.

The Shenzhen destroyer with more than 300 sailors is this week paying the first port call by communist China’s navy to Japan in the latest effort by the Asian powers to repair relations.

The Aegis system — seen as Japan’s top line of defense against a potential North Korean attack — has a cutting-edge radar and can launch missiles at more than 10 targets at one time.

The U.S. military, which protects Japan under a security alliance, and the U.S. embassy intervened to cancel the tour of the Kirishima, which is based in Yokosuka south of Tokyo, the Yomiuri said, quoting unnamed sources.

Kyodo News, in a similar report, said that the defense ministry decided to show the Chinese visitors a supply ship instead.

US embassy spokesman David Marks denied the reports, saying it was up to Japan to decide to offer tours of its navy, which the officially pacifist nation calls the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).

“Neither U.S. forces in Japan nor the U.S. embassy in Tokyo asked the government of Japan to cancel a tour of a JMSDF Aegis ship by PLA (People’s Liberation Army) navy officers,” Marks said.

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