© Reuters.
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry responded on Thursday to Japan’s territorial claims over disputed waters in the East China Sea, calling the move a “grave violation” of Chinese sovereignty.
“The Chinese coast guard ships applied the law on the spot in accordance with the law, it is a legitimate measure to safeguard Chinese sovereignty,” spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a regular press conference.
Wang made the remarks in response to a question about Japan’s coast guard saying Chinese coast guard ships violated Japanese territorial waters around disputed East China Sea islets.
The area is claimed by both China and Japan and has long been a sticking point in bilateral relations. China calls the islands Diaoyu while Japan calls them Senkaku.
China’s coast guard said on Wednesday it had entered the waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea to counter what it called the incursion of Japanese vessels into Chinese territorial waters.
Chinese Maritime Police spokesman Gan Yu said in a statement that the coast guard boats entered the Diaoyu waters for a “normal rights protection patrol,” calling it a “routine movement.”
“(This is also) a strong countermeasure to Japan’s intrusion of a yacht and several patrol boats into our territorial waters,” Gan said, though he did not specify any incidents.
China’s coast guard said in late January that the Shinsei Maru and four other Japanese ships illegally entered the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands before being driven off by Chinese coast guard vessels.
On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Tokyo, the first such meeting in Japan in more than a decade, at a time when the United States he hopes the two neighbors can form a closer union. in front of Beijing
