Japan has protested to Beijing over a Chinese survey ship that operated for 10 days inside the exclusive economic zone claimed by Japan around Okinotorishima, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, officials said Monday.
Japan says Okinotorishima — two uninhabited rocky outcroppings about 1,700 kilometers (1,060 miles) southwest of Tokyo — are islands. China says they are only rocks and do not qualify as a demarcation point for Japan's exclusive economic zone, as Japan claims under international law.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that coast guard officials spotted a Chinese ship using survey equipment in the waters beginning July 9 and ordered it to stop. The Chinese ship stayed in the area until Saturday and Japan protested to Beijing via diplomatic channels, Suga said.
“We have not given permission to the Chinese side to conduct a maritime scientific survey in the waters,” Suga said.
Japan says Okinotorishima anchors the country's EEZ under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, which requires foreign ships to gain prior consent to operate surveys or fishing.