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.
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