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Japan says Chinese ships spend a record time breaking their territorial waters
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo had repeatedly raised diplomatic protests with Beijing over the presence of Chinese ships.
Both Tokyo and Beijing claim the uninhabited islands as their own, but Japan has managed the islands since 1972.
Tension over a rocky chain, 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo, has been boiling for years, and with claims for those from hundreds of years ago, neither Japan nor China would likely retreat in areas deemed birthright nationally in both capitals. .
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeman Zhao Lijian, stated that it was China’s innate right to patrol waters around the island and Beijing urged Japan to stop violating the country’s sovereignty.
Chinese government vessels have now spent 84 days in waters around the islands, the Japanese coast guard said Monday, but actual intrusion into Japanese territorial waters increased bets on the dispute.
The Japanese coast guard said the two Chinese intrusions since Thursday – each lasting 30 hours and 40 hours – were the longest span ever spent by Chinese government vessels in Japanese waters around the islands. During the robbery, Chinese ships were in Japanese territorial waters, sailing about four to six miles (six to 10 kilometers) from the islands, the Japanese said.
The close closeness between the two sides puts the ships at risk of collision, which can increase tensions even further if military confrontation is provoked.
Such a scenario has raised alarms in the region, due to the potential for escalation. Under the mutual defense pact with Tokyo, the United States is obliged to defend the islands as part of Japanese territory.
The emergence of Japan’s defense relations with India might also add to the tension between Tokyo and Beijing.
Late last month, Japanese Self Defense Forces training vessels were drilled with Indian navy ships in the Indian Ocean.
Asked at a press conference last month whether there was a connection between increased Chinese activity on disputed islands and Indian-Chinese military confronting the Himalayas, Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono said the region must do a better job of assessing Chinese intentions.
“China is trying to change the status quo on the Indian border, in Hong Kong and in the East China Sea, South China Sea. So it’s easy to make connections between those problems. Obviously the military is controlled by the Communist Party, so it must come from quite high in The Chinese Communist Party, “Kono said of the increasing Chinese military activity.
Shawn Deng from CNN contributed to this report.
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