A Chinese marine research vessel was spotted extending a wire-like object into the ocean within Japan’s exclusive economic zone around the Senkaku Islands, the Japanese coast guard said Saturday.
The coast guard said it urged the Chinese vessel to stop its activity in waters off Okinawa Prefecture, southwestern Japan, suspecting that it was a survey conducted without Japan’s prior consent. It took six hours for the ship to leave the EEZ, according to the coast guard.
The coast guard spotted the Chinese ship some 106 kilometers north-northwest of one of the Senkaku Islands at around 7:15 a.m.
The uninhabited islets in the East China Sea are administered by Japan but claimed by China and Chinese ships are frequently observed in waters around them.
Relations between Japan and China have worsened since remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi over a Taiwan contingency, at a time of heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait. China views Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland by force if necessary.
On Saturday, China’s military released around 24 seconds of footage of a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer passing through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier.
The passage of the destroyer has drawn criticism from China, which saw it as a provocation. Japan has made no public comment about the passage.
The United States, a close ally of Japan, regularly sends warships through the Taiwan Strait to assert freedom of navigation in international waters.
© KYODO
