According to the latest statistics released by the Japanese government on Monday (May 27), Chinese coast guard ships have been continuously sailing in the waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands (known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan) for 158 consecutive days, surpassing the record set in 2021.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi stated at a press briefing in Tokyo on Monday, “The Japanese government considers it of utmost importance that ships continue to navigate in the contiguous zone without illegally entering our territorial waters.”
The contiguous zone extends 12 nautical miles beyond a country’s territorial sea, with the area extending 12 nautical miles from the coast known as territorial waters. Hayashi did not disclose the frequency of Chinese ships entering Japanese territorial waters.
CNN reported that foreign warships are allowed to enter the contiguous zone, but analysts are concerned that the continuous presence of Chinese ships near the Diaoyu Islands could become a trigger for conflict between China and Japan.
Hayashi mentioned that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed “serious concerns” to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a trilateral summit held in Seoul with South Korea. “We will continue to take all possible preventive and monitoring measures in the waters around the Diaoyu Islands,” he said.
In 2012, the Japanese government purchased part of the islands in the area from private owners, a move that Beijing sees as a direct challenge to its sovereignty claims, leading to heightened tensions. Since then, China has regularly dispatched Chinese coast guard ships and other government vessels to the waters around the Diaoyu Islands to assert its sovereignty.
Hayashi stated on Monday that Japan is responding to the presence of Chinese ships around the Diaoyu Islands with its own vessels. “We ensure a comprehensive security system for our territorial waters by deploying patrol boats from the Japan Coast Guard that are always superior to other parties’ capabilities,” he said.
Analysts point out that any Japan-China conflict over the Diaoyu Islands could lead to a larger-scale conflict due to Japan’s mutual defense treaty with the United States.
The United States has made it clear multiple times that it considers the Diaoyu Islands to fall within the jurisdiction of the mutual defense treaty.
As Chinese coast guard ships expand their military presence around the Diaoyu Islands, Chinese military provocations are also occurring in two other hotspots in East Asia – the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
Last week, Taiwan’s newly elected President Tsai Ing-Wen was inaugurated, and China conducted its largest military exercise of the year around Taiwan.
In the South China Sea, Chinese coast guard ships took military action against a Philippine Navy supply vessel, using water cannons that resulted in injuries to Philippine sailors and damage to the ship.