Coastguard on the front line as Japan protests over Chinese incursions in East China Sea
Concerns over conflicts involving maritime law enforcers grow as players in the region expand their coastguard fleets and presence
Japan has lodged a formal protest with China over the entry of three Chinese coastguard ships into Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea.
The protest came after the United States said it would expand its coastguard presence in the Western Pacific to strengthen security ties with smaller nations – a move likely to prompt dismay in Beijing.
Japan’s coastguard said on Tuesday that three Chinese patrol boats temporarily entered Japanese territorial waters near the Senkakus, a group of uninhabited East China Sea islands known as the Diaoyus in China.
Japanese coastguard officials said the three boats stayed in the area for about 90 minutes before moving to the contiguous zone just outside Japanese waters by noon, Kyodo news agency reported.
Kenji Kanasugi, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, lodged a protest with the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, saying intrusions into Japan’s waters were an infringement of sovereignty.
Concerns over conflicts involving coastguard vessels are growing as players in the region expand their coastguard fleets and presence.