Fresh tension over disputed islands in East China Sea

China News.Net Friday 21st December, 2012

TOKYO -- Three Chinese ships entered the waters near the disputed islands in the East China Sea on Friday, in the first case of intrusion since a new government was elected in Japan.

The ships stayed there despite a warning from a Japanese Coast Guard ship, the coast guard said.

The dispute is over the islands -- which Japan calls Senkaku and China calls Diaoyu.

Last week, Japan had scrambled fighter jets near the small islands in the East China Sea after a Chinese plane was seen there.

The ships were in the disputed territory Friday to collect evidence of Japanese ships' and planes' infringement on Chinese sovereignty over the Diaoyu islands, Xinhua reported.

Japanese Coast Guard ships issued warnings to the Chinese vessels and the Chinese demanded the coast guard ships leave the area, a statement from the State Oceanic Administration in China said.

China has sent its ships into the islands' waters 19 times since Tokyo nationalised the islands in September. Analysts say it is Beijing's way of challenging Japan's de facto control of the islands, which has been the status quo for the past 40 years.

Japanese Coast Guard vessels have engaged in cat and mouse games with the Chinese ships, with both sides insisting they have territorial sovereignty over the area.

New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who was elected on Sunday has vowed to take a tough line on Beijing.

In one of his first broadcast interviews after the poll win he said there was no room for compromise in the row and put the onus for improved relations on Beijing.

"Japan and China need to share the recognition that having good relations is in the national interests of both countries," he said. "China lacks this recognition a little bit. I want them to think anew about mutually beneficial strategic relations."

Abe has pushed an agenda that includes upgrading the country's "Self Defence Forces" to make them a full-scale military, and has spoken of wanting to revise Japan's pacifist constitution.

He said he would make rebuilding Japan's alliance with Washington his top foreign policy goal and said it would be the first place he visits after assuming office.

Despite warm words about the importance of economic ties with Beijing - China is Japan's biggest trading partner - Abe stressed the need to build relations with other countries, such as India and Australia.

In its submission to the UN, China has argued: "Physiognomy and geological characteristics show that the continental shelf in the East China Sea is the natural prolongation of China's land territory.

"The natural prolongation of the continental shelf of China in the East China Sea extends to the Okinawa Trough, which is an important geographical unit featuring remarkable parttion," Xinhua news agency reports the document as saying.

The islands lie some 200km (124 miles) off Japan's Okinawa island and beyond China's 200 nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zone. They form part of Okinawa prefecture and are controlled by Japan.

Taiwan also lays claim to the islands.The waters around the islands offer rich fishing grounds and are thought to contain oil deposits.