BEIJING — China says its coast guard issued a warning to a Japanese fishing boat operating in waters surrounding uninhabited East China Sea islands that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China.
The warning is the latest event pointing to lingering tensions between the sides, just over a week after China’s senior diplomat, Wang Yi, made controversial comments suggesting China, Japan and South Korea should establish an alliance based on cultural and racial similarities in order to exclude the U.S. and other Western-style democracies.
State media ran a statement just before midnight Thursday quoting coast guard spokesperson Gan Yu saying a Chinese vessel issued a “warning to depart” to the Japanese fishing boat Zuiho Maru on Thursday near the the island known as Chiwei Yu in Chinese and Taisho in Japanese.
The tiny islet is the easternmost of the eight islands making up the Senkaku chain, known as Diaoyu in Chinese.
Taiwan also claims the chain, but has forged agreements on fishing in the area with Japan and does not send ships or planes to contest Japan’s sovereignty as China does routinely.
The Chinese statement said the Japanese boat “illegally entered the territorial waters of Chiwei Island, and the Chinese coast guard ships took necessary control measures and warned them to leave.”
“We urge the Japanese side to immediately stop all illegal activities in the waters to ensure that similar incidents will not happen again,” the statement said.
There was no immediate word on whether the Japanese vessel complied with the order or if further action was taken. Japan regularly scrambles jets and dispatches ships to ward off Chinese incursions into the air and waters surrounding the islands.
China’s insistence on sovereignty over the islands is part of its expansive territorial claims in the Pacific, including to underwater resources in the East China Sea, the self-governing island republic of Taiwan with its population of 23 million, and virtually the entire South China Sea, through which an estimated $5 trillion in international trade passes each year.
As with the Senkakus, China largely bases its claims on vague historical precedents. Taiwan, a former Japanese colony, split from mainland China in 1949 amid the Chinese Civil War. (AP)