The Japanese government has expressed concern over moves of a Chinese intelligence gathering naval ship in an area just outside Japan’s contiguous zone near the Senkaku Islands.
Japan controls the islands. The Japanese government maintains the islands are an inherent part of Japan’s territory. China and Taiwan claim them.
The Defense Ministry says a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ship spotted the intelligence-gathering vessel navigating just outside Japan’s contiguous zone south of the Senkaku Islands around 5 PM on Sunday Japan time.
The Chinese ship stayed in the area for 21 hours, moving eastward and westward a number of times. It left the area around 2 PM on Monday and sailed northward.
The ministry says the same ship encroached into Japan’s territorial waters off Kagoshima Prefecture on Wednesday last week in the first such incident since 2004.
The Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau chief, Kenji Kanasugi, called a minister at China’s embassy in Tokyo to convey Japan’s concern. He told him China has been unilaterally escalating its actions in waters around the country.
Source and image: NHK
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