Beijing ramps up propaganda war to bolster Diaoyus claim

Beijing has stepped up its propaganda efforts to show its sovereignty over disputed islands in the East China Sea as tensions between China and Japan linger.

In a rare move, state-run China Central Television broadcast live footage on Thursday of three Chinese maritime surveillance vessels operating in waters around the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan.

The three vessels sailed into the waters at around 5am on Thursday and sent warnings in Chinese and English to Japanese patrol boats, asking them to leave.

CCTV reported that the vessels encountered strong winds, but that visibility was the best it had been over the Lunar New Year holiday. A CCTV reporter on one of the vessels, the Haijian 50, said it sailed to within 13 nautical miles of the disputed islands, and similar patrols would be made in the future.

"The Diaoyu Islands are the inherent territory of China," the reporter said.

State media have run high-profile reports of drills by the People's Liberation Army and patrols by the State Oceanic Administration in recent days, stressing that crew members and soldiers had sacrificed their Lunar New Year family reunions to protect the nation's sovereignty.

Tensions between China and Japan have been escalating since September, when the Japanese government announced it was purchasing three of the five uninhabited islands.