Chinese ships approach islets disputed with Japan
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Tokyo (dpa) - Three Chinese coast guard ships entered what Japan considers its territorial waters around a group of disputed islets in the East China Sea Sunday morning, Japanese media reported.
The Japan Coast Guard repeatedly urged the crews to leave the area,19 kilometres west-south-west of Uotsuri Jima, one of the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, broadcaster NHK reported.
Japan considers its territorial waters to extend for 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres) from the shoreline of its Senkaku territory, in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The uninhabited islets are also claimed by China and Taiwan, where they call them Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai, respectively.
Beijing has stepped up its claim to the Senkaku territory since Tokyo purchased three of the islets in September 2012 from a private Japanese owner.
Japan plans to station 500 troops equipped with surface-to-air and surface-to-ship missiles on the island of Ishigaki, located near the disputed islets, Jiji Press reported Wednesday, citing Defence Ministry officials.
On Friday, the Japanese military scrambled F-15 fighter jets against Chinese war planes flying near the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako.
The Chinese planes flew from the East China Sea to the Pacific and took a U-turn to retrace the path, when they were identified as fourH-6 bombers, a TU-154 information-gathering plane and a Y-8observation plane, Jiji quoted defence officials saying.
There was no incursion into Japanese airspace, it said.
