TOKYO, July 4, 2020—Two Chinese coastguard ships had entered Japanese territorial waters around Japan’s Senkaku Islands on July 2 and remained there for more than 30 hours through July 3, a record-long violation of the United Nation’s Law of the Sea Convention, a Japanese Coast Guard spokesperson said July 4.
It was the 14th time since the beginning of this year that Chinese ships intruded into Japanese waters, the spokesman said. The Chinese coastguard vessels were identified as No. 2302 and No. 2502. He said there was one Japanese fishing boat operating in the area and the Japanese Coast Guard was on alert to protect the fishing boat. He declined to say how many Japanese patrol boats were in the area, but it’s believed to be one vessel.
At his regular news conference, Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said his government was ‘strongly protesting (to the Chinese government) on the diplomatic level. The Chinese foreign ministry has instead that Senkaku Islands are China’s sovereign territory and cannot accept the Japanese protest, according to news reports.
Even though the Chinese maritime offensive against Japan is escalating, the U.S. military seems to continue taking a hands-off attitude. It could be because the Chinese invasion of the Japanese waters has not triggered a material confrontation, but as was the case of the Spratly Islands in South China Sea, the Chinese might claim physical control of Senkaku with frequent invasions and intimidations with the belief that the Japanese Self-Defense forces are limited in performing military actions by law and for its limited resources.
While The Obama While House kept silent, the Chinese continued building installations in the Spratly Islands and elseswhere.
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