China has reacted sharply to US President Obama's statement that Article 5 of the US-Japan Security Agreement covered the Senkakus (called Diaoyu in Chinese) Islands. China's official news agency 'Xinhua' on April 24 angrily described Obama's statement as "a carefully calculated attempt to cage the rapidly developing Asian giant" and that it "would be premature and simply naive of Tokyo to arrive at a convenient conclusion from misreading the pledge". The Xinhua commentary added "what is extremely dangerous is that Abe and his nationalistic government might be encouraged to challenge China's bottom line in territorial disputes in the belief that Obama's pledge is a shield that gives impunity from all punishments".

Yang Yujun, spokesman of China's Ministry of Defence declared that the PLA will continue military patrols in "relevant" waters in the East China Sea. Ryan Zongze, Vice President of the China Institute of International Studies said Obama's remarks might lead to unforeseen problems because the military commitment could "sabotage US strategic initiatives in the region and undermine it's strategic flexibility". He said it would also harm US credibility as "instead of taking an honest broker's viewpoint the US is firmly backing one side and this has the potential to cause problems".