Japan has urged China to remove a buoy that it saw floating in the sea near the disputed Senkaku islands, known in China as the Diaoyu islands.
Japan says the buoy was discovered within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The unsettled chain of islands and rocks, which lie about 190 nautical miles southwest of Okinawa, have been held by Japan since 1895, but are also claimed by Taiwan.
An EEZ can spread as far as 200 nautical miles, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
A foreign ministry official told the AFP news agency that we have been lodging protests in both Japan and China since Japan’s coast guard in July discovered a buoy,” in the East China Sea.
“We have urged the immediate removal of the buoy as it is against international laws” to make a structure in Japan’s EEZ without its approval, the official said, in a state of anonymity.
Beijing put a buoy in the same place as Japan’s EEZ in 2018, the official said.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of Defence has blamed China for “relentless” intrusions around the islands, stating that between April and August 2020, it had noticed Chinese coast guard vessels around the Senkaku islands for 111 straight days, totaling 333 days over the complete year.
Beijing has also increasingly utilized its coast guard in the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines has blamed China for engaging in destructive maneuvers.
