The Chinese Coast Guard announced that it had driven away five Japanese ships from the waters around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands controlled by Tokyo.
China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu today accused the Shinsei Maru and four other Japanese ships of “illegally trespassing” in the waters around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, adding that Beijing’s official ships had chased them away. expel this group of ships from the area.
Chinese Coast Guard ships move near the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in 2021. Photo: Kyodo.
“We urge the Japanese side to immediately stop illegal activities in this sea and ensure that similar incidents do not happen again,” a spokesman for the China Coast Guard said.
Japanese officials have not commented on the information.
Senkaku/Diaoyu are uninhabited islands located about 1,900 km from Tokyo and about 600 km from Shanghai, currently controlled by Japan. Beijing has claimed this group of islands as its sovereignty since the 1970s. After Japan nationalized Senkaku/Diaoyu in 2012, Chinese ships approached the group of islands more often.
Location of disputed islands group Senkaku/Diaoyu. Graphics: AFP.
China’s Coast Guard is constantly present around the island group in the context of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s goal of turning the country into a “maritime power”. The Japanese government must set up a special task force at the prime minister’s office to analyze the situation around the group of disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Vu Anh (Theo Reuters)