Japan protests Communist China over maritime trespassing

It is reported on June 23rd, that Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi had a three-hour video conference with Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of Communist China Foreign Ministry Hong Liang on June 23rd.

Early this week, responding to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s move to “set up a new drilling facility for gas fields in a contested area of East China Sea”, Japan’s Foreign Ministry protested to its counterpart of Communist China, “The facility is located on the Chinese side of a Tokyo-proposed median line separating the countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in the sea,” the minister said. Based on the agreement two countries signed in 2008 on joint gas development in the area, Japan urged Communist China to halt its unilateral resource development program and restore agreed treaty.

As reported on June 4th, Funakoshi lodged protest with Communist China regarding a Chinese research vessel conducting a survey, planting suspected research equipment in waters around the Japan-controlled EEZ Senkaku Islands.

During the video conference, two sides agreed to set up a direct senior officers’ hotline between two sides’ Defense department, to avoid unexpected encounter between Japan Coast Guard and People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

“Two Chinese Government ships have entered Japan’s territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The ships apparently tried to approach a Japanese fishing boat operating in the area,” the Japan Coastal Guard officials told the press on June 21st.

Japanese authorities said, Chinese coast guard ships navigated Japan’s territorial waters for more than 58 hours, the longest incursion of its kind in a decade.

Japan’s coast guard sent its own patrol ships to the area to demand the Chinese vessels immediately leave Japan’s territorial waters. However, two Chinese ships ignored the warning, continued to approach a nearby Japanese fishing boat.

Responding to Communist China’s increasing maritime intrusion, Japan remains at a higher alert level.