Japanese Cabinet Chief Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo has made repeated diplomatic protests with Beijing over the presence of Chinese ships.
Both Tokyo and Beijing claim the uninhabited islands as their own, but Japan has administered them since 1972.
Tensions over the rock chain, 1,200 miles (1,900 km) southwest of Tokyo, have subsided for years, and with claims over them dating back hundreds of years, neither Japan nor China will back down over territory considered a national birthright in both capitals. .
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said it was China’s inherent right to patrol the waters around the islands, and Beijing urged Japan to stop infringing on the country’s sovereignty.
Chinese government ships have spent 84 days in waters around the islands, Japan’s coast guard said Monday, but the actual intrusion into Japan’s territorial waters increases the stake in the dispute.
Japan’s coast guard said the two Chinese intrusions since Thursday, which lasted 30 hours and 40 hours respectively, are the longest stretches that Chinese government ships have passed in Japanese waters around the islands. During those raids, Chinese ships were within Japan’s territorial waters, sailing four to six miles (six to 10 kilometers) from the islands, Japan said.
The proximity between the two sides puts the ships at risk of collision, which could further increase tension if a military confrontation ensues.
Such a scenario has raised alarm within the region, due to the potential for escalation. Under a mutual defense pact with Tokyo, the United States is obligated to defend the islands as part of Japanese territory.
Emerging Japanese defense ties to India may also be increasing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
Late last month, Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force training ships drilled with Indian naval vessels in the Indian Ocean.
When asked at a press conference last month if there is any connection between increased Chinese activities on the disputed islands and the military confrontation between India and China in the Himalayas, Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono, He said the region should better assess Chinese intentions.
“China is trying to change the status quo at the border of India, in Hong Kong and in the East China Sea, in the South China Sea. Therefore, it is easy to make connections between these issues. Obviously, the The military is controlled by the Communist Party, so it has to come from quite high in the Chinese Communist Party, “Kono said of the increase in Chinese military activities.
CNN’s Shawn Deng contributed to this report.
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