A Chinese Navy spy ship on Wednesday entered Japan’s territorial waters for the first time in over a decade while tailing two Indian naval ships during trilateral Malabar naval exercise attended by the US, India and Japan.
Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft spotted the Dongdiao-class intelligence vessel sailing in territorial waters to the west of Kuchinoerabu Island at around 3:30 am (1830 GMT Tuesday), Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko told reporters.
The ship travelled on a southeasterly bearing and left Japan’s territorial waterssouth of the prefecture’s Yakushima Island around 5 am, Kyodo news agency quoted Seko as saying.
It was for the first time that a Chinese spy ship was detected in Japanese water since a submarine was spotted in 2004.