Japan warned Chinese vessels to chase fishing boats

The Japanese Coast Guard said today that four Chinese Coast Guard ships entered the waters near the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands around 4 p.m. May 8.

The confrontation took place about 50 minutes later, when two Chinese boats began chasing a Japanese fishing boat in waters off the island of Uotsuri, one of the archipelago’s largest islands, about 12 km away.

After Japanese maritime authorities dispatched patrol boats to the area and issued a radio alert, Chinese ships left the area.

The Japanese fishing vessel had 3 fishermen at the time of the incident, but no one was injured.

Also on May 8, the Chinese Coast Guard said in its official Weibo account that a group of its ships “patrolled the waters around Diaoyu.”

According to Kyodo4 Chinese ships were in the area for about 2 hours.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has not yet spoken about the incident.

The inhabited archipelago in eastern China is currently controlled by Japan and is called Senkaku, but China is also claiming it and calling it Diaoyu. The dispute has been a “thorn” in relations between the two countries for decades, although this relationship has improved in recent years.

Chinese Coast Guard ships appear frequently near Senkaku / Diaoyu with the most recent being on April 17. Beijing also sought to claim regional sovereignty by imposing an annual fishing ban in eastern China, including the waters near Senkaku / Diaoyu, this year from May 1 to August 16.

Anping

According to SCMP