Japanese and Chinese vessels yesterday engaged in a fresh standoff around disputed islands, the two nations’ coast guards said.
Relations have been strained since new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month suggested that her country could intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on Taiwan.
The Japan Coast Guard said two China Coast Guard ships entered Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea early yesterday, and left a few hours later.
Photo: Reuters
The Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, also known as Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan and China, have been a regular flashpoint between Tokyo and Beijing over the decades.
After the patrol ships sailed toward a Japanese fishing boat, a Japanese coast guard vessel issued a demand that they leave the waters, the Japan Coast Guard statement said.
“The activities of Chinese coast guard vessels navigating within Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands while asserting their own claims fundamentally violate international law,” it said.
The statement added that the two Chinese vessels, and others, were still in the area.
China Coast Guard spokesman Liu Dejun (劉德軍) said that a Japanese fishing vessel “illegally entered China’s territorial waters.”
“China Coast Guard vessels took necessary control measures and made warnings to drive it away,” Liu said on the China Coast Guard’s official WeChat account.
“The China Coast Guard will continue to conduct rights protection and law enforcement activities in the waters around the Diaoyutai Islands, resolutely safeguarding national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights,” he added.
It followed a similar incident around the islands on Nov. 16, about a week after Takaichi’s comments, Kyodo News reported.
Beijing has urged its citizens to avoid travel to Japan and a number of cultural events have been hit, including halting a performance by a Japanese singer in Shanghai on Friday.
Aside from reportedly renewing a ban on Japanese seafood imports, China has stopped short of imposing more serious economic measures, such as curbing exports of rare earth metals.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS