Tensions between Japan and China are escalating as Japan lodged its third protest in less than two weeks over Chinese coast guard vessels entering its territorial waters. The latest incident involved four Chinese vessels breaching the 12-mile limit around the contested Senkaku Islands, prompting swift diplomatic complaints from Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. This increasing pattern of incursions not only raises questions about sovereignty and security in the region but also highlights the fragile dynamics of East China Sea geopolitics. With recent breaches of airspace and territorial waters, both nations find themselves at a critical juncture in their maritime relations, where every move is closely scrutinized on the global stage.
Stripes: Japan lodged another protest with China last week, its third in less than two weeks, after it said Chinese coast guard vessels entered waters around Japanese islets in the East China Sea.
Four vessels crossed the 12-mile territorial limit claimed by Japan around the Senkaku Islands between 4 p.m. and 4:06 p.m. Friday, according to a Japan coast guard news release that day.
Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry then lodged complaints with the Chinese Embassy in Japan and with the Chinese government in Beijing, a ministry spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.
Some government officials in Japan are required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
Two Chinese vessels approached Taisho Island from the northwest and entered the 12-mile limit at 4 p.m. and 4:06 p.m., according to the release.
Meanwhile, the remaining pair of Chinese vessels simultaneously entered the area around Uotsuri Island, also from the northwest.
The Chinese vessels appeared to be armed with deck-mounted machine guns and were met by a larger contingent of Japanese coast guard ships, a Japan coast guard spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.
They warned the Chinese vessels to leave the area using radio and electronic message boards, he said.
“We do not know why the Chinese vessels intruded Japanese waters,” he said. “There were no Japanese fishing boats operating in the area.”
All four vessels left Japanese waters without incident by 6:01 p.m.
The incidents marked the 32nd and 33rd times this year that Chinese coast guard vessels intruded into Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkakus, the spokesman said. The last incident occurred Aug. 28.
The Senkakus are 105 miles east of Taiwan. The islets, whose surface area amounts to about 2½ square miles, are also claimed by China and Taiwan.
The incidents followed the intrusion of a Chinese military aircraft and a survey vessel into Japanese airspace and territorial waters around Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, in late August.
A Chinese Y-9 surveillance plane flew into Japanese airspace on Aug. 26 just southeast of the Danjo Islands, about 100 miles southwest of Nagasaki. It was the first time a Chinese military aircraft breached Japan’s airspace.
The flight was a “grave violation” of Japan’s sovereignty and a threat to its security, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said during a press conference Aug. 27.
“We filed extremely severe protests through diplomatic channels on the same day and strongly asked for measures to prevent recurrences,” he said.
Five days later, a Chinese naval survey vessel navigated into Japan’s territorial waters southwest of Kuchinoerabu Island, Kagoshima prefecture.
“We expressed strong concerns and filed a protest to the Chinese government through diplomatic channels on the same day,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said during a press conference Sept. 2.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel questioned China’s intent on his account on social platform X.
“China says it’s still ‘investigating and verifying’ the recent violation of Japan’s airspace by one of its surveillance planes,” he wrote Sept. 3. “But with a Chinese survey ship sailing into Japanese waters only the other day, two territorial incursions in less than a week looks more intentional than accidental.”
