A Japanese group's survey of the disputed Senkaku Islands was cut short over the weekend after China's coast guard confronted their research vessel in nearby waters, according to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo and local media outlets.
A team from Tokyo's Tokai University, led by Japanese legislator Tomomi Inada and four other lawmakers, had planned to study the strategic East China Sea territory from April 26 to 27, but their trip near the islets—called Diaoyu in Beijing and Diaoyutai in Taipei—was canceled on the second day, the embedded Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said at the time.
The Senkakus are a group of uninhabited features administered by Japan but claimed by China. They are located about 100 miles northeast of Taiwan, which China also claims. They appear on the official maps of all three governments; Coast Guard and fishing ships from all sides came to blows over the territory in the previous decade.
The survey commissioned by authorities in Ishigaki, the city under Japan's Okinawa prefecture that administers the uninhabited islets, was an "infringement and provocation," the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo said in a statement on Sunday. It asked the Japanese government to "return to the correct path of properly managing differences through dialogue and consultation to avoid further escalation of the situation."
The message was reported on Monday by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, who said Beijing lodged a formal protest with Tokyo through diplomatic channels. "China will continue taking all necessary measures to firmly safeguard our territorial sovereignty," Lin said.
Japan's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
Ishigaki last inspected the Senkakus 15 months ago, but a Japanese lawmaker has not joined such a survey since 2013. Its latest attempt involved the first-known use of a small drone to capture video and picture of Uotsuri, the largest of the territories, from a distance of just over 1 mile, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
The environmental survey was "forced to halt" after a Chinese ship approached and "researchers deemed the situation dangerous," according to the paper. Two Japan Coast Guard patrol ships were said to have blocked the Chinese vessel's approach.
Inada, who previously served as Japan's defense minister under the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has represented the country's nationalist ruling party, the liberal Democratic Party, in the Japanese parliament's lower house since 2005.
The conservative lawmaker told national broadcaster NHK that her purpose was to understand the "security dynamics" around the islands, where Chinese and Japanese Coast Guard ships experience regular run-ins.
"We looked at the status of [Japan's] territorial waters after [China's] Coast Guard Law took effect and confirmed that the Senkaku Islands are under our country's administration," Inada, who is the LDP's acting secretary-general, told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
China Coast Guard intrusions into the island group's territorial waters or adjacent contiguous zone, including by ships armed with autocannons, have surged since the Japanese government nationalized the Senkakus in 2012, effectively forbidding civilians to land on them.
As of Monday, flotillas of three to four Chinese government ships had sailed within 24 nautical miles of the Senkakus on 130 consecutive days, according to Newsweek's analysis of a Japan Coast Guard data, in what subject matter experts say is China's attempt to demonstrate a degree of administrative control.
The simmering feud, should it boil over, could have far-reaching implications for the United States, which counts Japan among its most-important allies and recognizes decades of Japanese administration over the Senkakus. Although it does not take a position on sovereignty over the disputed territory, Washington is treaty-bound to defend Japanese at the islands should they come under an armed attack.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, in a recent exclusive interview with Newsweek, said his country faced the most-complex security environment since World War II.
"First of all, in the East China Sea, unilateral attempts to change the status quo are being intensified. And this is something of a grave concern for us," Kishida said. "Japan will assert to China what needs to be asserted, and respond calmly and resolutely to the situation with the determination to resolutely defend Japan's territory as well as territorial waters and airspace."
Kishida also signaled his desire to cooperate with leaders in Beijing on issues of mutual concern, saying "both Japan and China are countries that have great responsibility for the peace and prosperity of the region and the international community."
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John Feng is Newsweek's contributing editor for Asia based in Taichung, Taiwan. His focus is on East Asian politics. He ... Read more
