Japan has lodged a strong protest against China after a helicopter from a Chinese Coast Guard ship “violated” airspace and four vessels entered its territorial waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, state media reported.
China also claims the Japanese-controlled uninhabited islands, which it calls the Diaoyu.
Japanese official news agency Kyodo said that airspace intrusion on Saturday was the fourth one by China.
The helicopter took off from one of the four Chinese Coast Guard ships that entered Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkakus at around 12:20 pm, the Japanese Coast Guard said.
Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels spotted the helicopter flying above the territorial waters for about 15 minutes, prompting the Air Self-Defence Force to scramble two jet fighters, its foreign ministry said as reported by Kyodo.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry in a statement said, “It has been confirmed that on May 3, around 12 pm, four China Coast Guard vessels entered Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, and a helicopter launched from one of the China Coast Guard vessels intruded into Japan’s territorial airspace around the islands.”
It further said that following this incident, the Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, summoned Zhao Baogang, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of China, and lodged a protest concerning the China Coast Guard’s actions, demanding measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
China Responds
Chinese state media Global Times, however, said that on Saturday, while China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels were conducting a routine patrol in the waters surrounding the Diaoyu Dao a Japanese civilian aircraft illegally entered China’s airspace over Diaoyu Dao at 11:19 am and exited at 11:24 am.
The Chinese Coast Guard “implemented necessary control measures” and dispatched a shipborne helicopter to issue a warning and drive it away, CCG spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement as per the Global Times.
Yesterday, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao lodged a representation with Japan’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi over the intrusion of the Japanese civilian aircraft, the Chinese media outlet said.
