Chinese coast guard ships yesterday sailed into disputed waters at the center of a bitter row with Tokyo, officials said, a day after China blasted Japanese lawmakers for visiting a controversial war shrine.
The four government vessels spent about two hours within the 12 nautical mile (22.2km) band around the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands — which Taiwan calls the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and Beijing refers to as the Diaoyu Archipelago (釣魚群島) — in the East China Sea.
Japan said the vessels had left territorial waters by 12:30pm, but remained in the vicinity.
Following the incursion, the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Director-General Junichi Ihara lodged a protest with a senior diplomat at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, Kyodo news agency reported.
Kyodo said seven ships were spotted just outside of the waters earlier yesterday, before the four Chinese coast guard vessels entered the disputed waters.
The incursion came after Beijing on Thursday summoned Japan’s ambassador to condemn a visit by nearly 100 Japanese lawmakers to the Yasukuni Shrine on the anniversary of Tokyo’s World War II surrender.
Japanese politicians’ visits to the site are seen as a slap in the face by neighboring nations, especially China and South Korea, which suffered from Tokyo’s imperialist expansion in the first half of the 20th century.
Yesterday’s incident was the latest in a series of incursions by Chinese ships as relations between Tokyo and Beijing plumb all-time lows.
Last week, the Japanese foreign ministry summoned Beijing’s envoy after Chinese ships spent more than a day in the disputed waters, their longest incursion since the long-simmering dispute erupted again last year after Tokyo nationalized some of the chain.
The islands — believed to harbor vast natural resources below their seabed — are seen as a potential flashpoint that some observers fear could lead to armed conflict between the Asian giants.
The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is to tighten rules for candidates running for public office, requiring them to declare that they do not hold a Chinese household registration or passport, and that they possess no other foreign citizenship. The requirement was set out in a draft amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法 ) released by the ministry on Thursday. Under the proposal, candidates would need to make the declaration when submitting their registration forms, which would be published in the official election bulletin. The move follows the removal of several elected officials who were
FOUR DESIGNATED AREAS: Notices were issued for live-fire exercises in waters south and northwest of Penghu, northeast of Keelung and west of Kaohsiung, they said The military is planning three major annual exercises across the army, navy and air force this month, with the navy’s “Hai Chiang” (海強, “Sea Strong”) drills running from today through Thursday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Hai Chiang exercise, which is to take place in waters surrounding Taiwan, would feature P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and S-70C anti-submarine helicopters, the ministry said, adding that the drills aim to bolster the nation’s offshore defensive capabilities. China has intensified military and psychological pressure against Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes and vessels into areas near the nation’s air defense identification zone and across
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
NATIONAL DAY: The ‘Taiwan Dome’ would form the centerpiece of new efforts to bolster air defense and be modeled after Israel’s ‘Iron Dome,’ sources said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday pledged to strengthen the nation’s air defense capabilities and build a “T-Dome” system to create a safety net against growing military threats from China. “We will accelerate our building of the T-Dome, establish a rigorous air defense system in Taiwan with multi-layered defense, high-level detection and effective interception, and weave a safety net for Taiwan to protect the lives and property of citizens,” he said in his National Day address. In his keynote address marking the Republic of China’s (ROC) 114th anniversary, Lai said the lessons of World War II have taught nations worldwide “to ensure that