Two Chinese fishery patrol boats briefly entered waters near the
Japan-administered Senkaku Islands on Wednesday morning, the Japan Coast Guard
said.
Following the incident, the Japanese government set up a liaison office to
gather more information and Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae lodged a
protest with China’s Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua, Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yukio Edano said at a news conference.
Edano said Sasae summoned the Chinese envoy to “strongly protest” over the
incident and stated Japan’s basic position that “there is no doubt that the
Senkaku Islands, historically and based on international law, are an integral
part of Japanese territory.”
Cheng told Sasae that he will relay the Japanese protest to Beijing, but
reiterated China’s territorial claim to the disputed islands.
The Japanese vice foreign minister expressed deep regret over the incident,
saying Tokyo cannot overlook the Chinese boats’ entry into Japanese territorial
waters as innocent passage and requested that China prevent such an incident
from happening again, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
The top government spokesman called on China for restraint, saying, “I would
like to ask the Chinese side to take appropriate measures from a broad
standpoint of (relations between) Japan and China.”
Foreign Press Secretary Satoru Sato also urged Beijing to handle the case
properly in view of recent efforts to improve bilateral ties, such as China’s
aid to Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the two governments’
preparations for next year’s 40th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral
diplomatic ties.
A Japanese patrol vessel from the regional coast guard headquarters in Naha,
Okinawa Prefecture found the Chinese boats around 6:15 a.m., 30 to 33 kilometers
north-northeast of Kuba Island of the Senkaku islet group.
When the Japanese patrol vessel issued a warning to the Chinese crew, they
radioed back, saying, “Diaoyu (the Chinese name for Senkaku) and its neighboring
islands are China’s indigenous territories. We are discharging our legitimate
duties in Chinese waters,” according to the coast guard.
They stayed inside the territorial waters from 6:36 a.m. to 7:13 a.m. and
then moved away before one of them reentered for seven minutes from 7:41 a.m.
They then traveled in the contiguous zone, defined by Japan in line with
international law as an area where Japanese laws are applicable just outside its
territorial waters, according to the coast guard.
The coast guard said it was the first time for Chinese fishery patrol boats
to intrude into Japan’s territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands.
On Wednesday afternoon, Edano said the Chinese patrol boats were continuing
to navigate in the contiguous zone in a clockwise movement. A senior Japanese
government official said even though it is not illegal for the boats to be in
the contiguous zone, Tokyo will consider taking some action depending on their
moves.
The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that the passage of
foreign ships in the territorial sea cannot be considered innocent if they
engage in activities such as threat against the sovereignty of the coastal state
and act of propaganda aimed at affecting the defense or security of that state.
Tensions heightened between Japan and China over the disputed islands in
September last year when a Chinese fishing boat collided with Japanese patrol
vessels near the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
Edano said since that incident, Chinese vessels have approached the Senkaku
Islands on 11 occasions, but without trespassing in Japan’s territorial waters.
