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Tokyo / AFP
A Chinese spy ship entered Japan’s territorial waters on Wednesday, Tokyo officials said, less than a week after another of the rival’s naval vessels sailed near islands at the centre of a sovereignty dispute.
Concerns over China’s rising military presence in Asian waters have sparked concerns in Japan, which administers islands in the East China Sea also claimed by Beijing and where tensions between the two powers have festered. A Japanese navy P-3C surveillance aircraft spotted the 6,096-ton Dongdiao-class “information gathering†Chinese vessel around 3:30 am in territorial waters near Kuchinoerabu island in southern Japan, Hiroshige Seko, a government spokesman, told reporters.
Territorial waters are a 12-nautical-mile band, though Japan did not immediately say by how much the Chinese ship breached them.
The area is part of a Japanese island chain that divides the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and is not subject to the territorial dispute. The Chinese ship sailed southeast and exited Japanese waters around 5 am heading into the Pacific, Seko told a regular press briefing.
Wednesday’s reported incursion came less than a week after another Chinese naval ship sailed close to the disputed islands, though did not enter what Japan sees as territorial waters.
Japan said last week that a Jiangkai class Chinese frigate sailed into “contiguous waters†surrounding the contested East China Sea islands last Thursday.
Contiguous waters are a 12-nautical-mile band that extends beyond territorial waters. Under international rules, they are not the preserve of any single country, although the resident power has certain limited rights.