Japan lodges protest over China vessels near disputed islands

The four Chinese beach guard ships entered Tokyo-controlled regional waters on Friday morning, according to Hayashi, and they left after receiving numerous warnings from the Chinese coast guard.

He told reporters,” We have lodged a strong protest through a diplomatic route because the Chinese coast guard ships ‘ intrusion into our territorial waters is a violation of international laws,” adding that the incident” ca n’t be tolerated.”

It was the first day that all the ships in a group of entering the waters were thought to have been equipped with quite arms, according to a Chinese coast guard official.

Since 2012, Taiwanese boats have been repeatedly seen close to the contested islands, but only one of four Chinese vessels in the group recently appeared to have a cannon, according to official Takanori Fukuda.

In August 2016, as many as seven Foreign arteries with what appeared to be guns transited near, though no inside Japan’s territorial waters, according to Fukuda.

Japan reported last month that it had seen Taiwanese ships sailing close to the contested territories for a record number of days.