First China ships in disputed waters since Japan election

China sent its ships into territorial waters around disputed islands Friday, in the first incursion since Japan elected a new government.

The move is a setback to hopes in Tokyo that Beijing might use the poll as a chance for a fresh start after months of bitter wrangling and rhetoric over an issue that neither side is prepared to budge on.

Japan’s coastguard said three surveillance vessels moved inside the 12-nautical mile band around the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus, with a fisheries patrol ship logged in adjacent waters.

At nightfall they remained in the area, it said.

China has sent ships into the islands’ waters 19 times since Tokyo nationalised the chain in September, according to a coastguard tally, with analysts saying Beijing intends to prove it can come and go as it pleases.

The ante was upped last week when a Chinese plane overflew the area, in what Japan said was the first time Beijing had breached its airspace since at least 1958. Tokyo scrambled fighter jets in response.