Two official ships of the Chinese Coast Guard Bureau entered the territorial waters of the “South Island” in the Diaoyutai Islands in the early hours of Saturday morning, and also chased two Japanese fishing boats at times in the sea about 22 kilometers south of the island (equivalent to the territorial waters of the island). This is the first Time since the implementation of China’s “Marine Police Law”, which allows the use of weapons, that an official vessel has entered “Japanese territorial waters.
In response, The Japanese government, in view of the fact that the six-day situation was a “major incident” in the emergency situation, activated the crisis management mechanism and upgraded the “Information Liaison Office” of the “Official Residence Crisis Management Center” located at the Prime Minister’s official residence to “Official Residence Crisis Management Center”. The “Information Liaison Office” of the Crisis Management Center at the Prime Minister’s residence was upgraded to the “Residence Countermeasures Office” to integrate and coordinate the government’s initial measures in response to the crisis.
According to the Maritime Security Headquarters of the 11th Administrative Region of the Japan Coast Guard, two of the four Chinese official vessels in the “contiguous zone” of the South Island sailed into the island’s territorial waters between 4:45 a.m. and 52 a.m. on Saturday, and one of them was equipped with a machine gun. The adjacent zone, also known as the contiguous zone, is defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 as being 12 miles (about 22 kilometers) outside the territorial waters.
According to Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun, the two Chinese maritime police vessels intermittently chased two Japanese fishing boats with three crew members each after about 4:52 a.m. on Saturday. As soon as the Japanese fishing boats left the territorial waters of South Island, the two official boats also sailed out. The Japanese Coast Guard patrol ship that arrived at the news issued a warning, the Chinese Coast Guard ships left the territorial waters of South Island at about 1:15 p.m. that day. This is the eighth consecutive day that Chinese official ships have sailed around the Diaoyutai Islands, and the second time this year that they have approached Japanese fishing boats, compared to eight cases last year.
The Japanese side has expressed its “strong concern” about the maritime police law to the Chinese side through the Japan-China high-level consultation on maritime affairs (the Chinese side called the high-level consultation on maritime affairs between China and Japan) on three days. The Chinese side responded that the law is “in line with international law. Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) political poll chairman Hirofumi Shimomura warned on four days about the law, saying that China was pushing step by step for the marine police to become its “second navy.
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