Japan protests Chinese ships entering its waters

Japan has lodged a strong protest with China over the intrusion of two Chinese patrol vessels into Japanese waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Japan’s Ambassador to China, Uichiro Niwa, visited China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin in Beijing on Wednesday. He lodged a protest against the intrusion of the patrol vessels that were spotted in Japan’s territorial waters earlier on Wednesday. He urged China to prevent a recurrence of such violations, Japanese (NHK WORLD) reported Thursday. Niwa said despite repeated warnings from the Japanese government, the boats entered Japanese waters following a series of similar incidents. Niwa said Japan cannot accept the ships’ movements as ordinary maritime traffic approved by international law. He said their behavior also ran counter to a bilateral agreement to improve ties and deepen the relationship between the two countries. Liu reiterated China’s stance that the ships’ movement near the Islands didn’t constitute any territorial violation since they are Chinese territory.