Tokyo, Japan: After Taiwan, China is now intruding in the water space of Japan. Two Chinese ships were found in Japan’s territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Saturday.
Around 12.00 pm (local time) four Chinese ships passed through the area right next to Japanese territorial waters, Sputnik reported citing Japanese broadcaster NHK World.
Then, two of the ships entered Japan’s territorial waters near uninhabited Senkaku Islands claimed by China and tried to approach Japanese fishing vessels. However, as of 3 pm (local time) both ships remained in the territorial waters of Japan.
Japan controls the Senkaku Islands, but China and Taiwan continue to claim them.
Tokyo maintains the islands are an inherent part of its territory as per history and international law.
China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea and has overlapping territorial claims with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
China has been increasing its maritime activities in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea over the past few months, partly in response to Beijing’s concerns over the increasing US military presence in the region because of escalating Sino-US tensions.
Beijing’s rising assertiveness against counter claimants in the East and South Sea has resulted in unprecedented agreement across the Indo-Pacific.