Latest news with #maritimeDispute
Associated Press
5 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Japan Coast Guard rescues injured crew from Chinese ship near contested waters
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's coast guard has dispatched a patrol vessel to rescue an injured crewmember of a Chinese survey ship in the contested waters in southwestern Japan, officials said Friday. The Chinese survey ship Ke Xue requested the rescue by the Japan Coast Guard on Wednesday, saying that one of the crewmembers suffered a hand injury during the survey operation in the area off the southern coast of Miyako Island, according to the JCG. The JCG patrol vessel picked up the crewmember, a Chinese national in his 40s, from the survey ship and transported him to Naha on the main Okinawa island for hospital treatment. The Ke Xue is one of a number of Chinese survey vessels that operate in waters in the East China Sea, where China has increasingly stepped up maritime activity and routinely sends survey vessels, coast guard ships, as well as warships and aircraft, often violating Japanese territorial waters and airspace. Japanese officials said that on Monday, another Chinese survey ship lowered a wire into the sea known as the Japanese exclusive economic zone — an area where Japan claims rights to conduct economic activity — east of Japan's southernmost island of Okinotorishima, without permission from the Japanese government. The JCG patrol aircraft warned the survey ship to move out of the waters, and the Japanese government lodged a protest to the Chinese side.
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 days ago
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Philippines Says China Has No Right to Object or Interfere with Its ‘Lawful' Activities in South China Sea
The Philippine foreign ministry said on Thursday that China has no right to object to or interfere with its lawful and routine activities in the South China Sea. The ministry said it also "rejects and refutes" recent statements of the Chinese embassy in Manila that Beijing has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and China between them have claims and a presence on dozens of features in the Spratly archipelago, ranging from reefs and rocks to islands, natural and artificial. China's manmade islands there include runways, radar towers, ports and missile systems. "We urge China to respect the Philippines' sovereignty and jurisdiction, even as we continue to pursue peaceful and legal means to manage differences and the situation at sea," foreign ministry spokesperson Teresita Daza said in a statement. China and the Philippines traded accusations last week following a confrontation between two of their vessels in contested waters of the South China Sea, the latest incident in a long-running row in the strategic waterway. The Philippines' fisheries bureau said the lives of a civilian crew were put at risk when the Chinese coast guard fired water cannons and sideswiped a vessel as it conducted marine research around a disputed reef. The Chinese coast guard said two Philippine vessels had illegally entered waters near Subi Reef, a Chinese-built artificial island, and organized personnel to land on the unoccupied sandbars of Sandy Cay. "The Philippines is clearly within its rights to conduct routine maritime operations and scientific research in and around these features, and will continue to do so," Daza said. "China has no right to object much less interfere with these lawful and routine activities." China claims sovereignty over nearly all the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. An international arbitral tribunal in 2016 said Beijing's expansive claim has no basis under international law. The Chinese embassy in its statement sent to media on Monday said the Philippines had since January made 27 "unauthorized landings" on features, despite a 2002 agreement among Southeast Asian countries and China to refrain from doing so.
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Philippines says China has no right to object to ‘lawful' activities in South China Sea
The Philippine foreign ministry said on Thursday that China has no right to object to or interfere with its lawful and routine activities in the South China Sea. The ministry said it also 'rejects and refutes' recent statements of the Chinese embassy in Manila that Beijing has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and China between them have claims and a presence on dozens of features in the Spratly archipelago, ranging from reefs and rocks to islands, natural and artificial. China's manmade islands there include runways, radar towers, ports and missile systems. 'We urge China to respect the Philippines' sovereignty and jurisdiction, even as we continue to pursue peaceful and legal means to manage differences and the situation at sea,' foreign ministry spokesperson Teresita Daza said in a statement. China and the Philippines traded accusations last week following a confrontation between two of their vessels in contested waters of the South China Sea, the latest incident in a long-running row in the strategic waterway. The Philippines' fisheries bureau said the lives of a civilian crew were put at risk when the Chinese coast guard fired water cannons and sideswiped a vessel as it conducted marine research around a disputed reef. The Chinese coast guard said two Philippine vessels had illegally entered waters near Subi Reef, a Chinese-built artificial island, and organized personnel to land on the unoccupied sandbars of Sandy Cay. 'The Philippines is clearly within its rights to conduct routine maritime operations and scientific research in and around these features, and will continue to do so,' Daza said. 'China has no right to object much less interfere with these lawful and routine activities.' China claims sovereignty over nearly all the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. An international arbitral tribunal in 2016 said Beijing's expansive claim has no basis under international law. The Chinese embassy in its statement sent to media on Monday said the Philippines had since January made 27 'unauthorized landings' on features, despite a 2002 agreement among Southeast Asian countries and China to refrain from doing so.
NHK
27-05-2025
- General
- NHK
Beijing rejects Tokyo's protest over survey ship activities in Japan's EEZ
China has rejected Japan's protest over a Chinese vessel's activities in Japan's exclusive economic zone near its southernmost island. The Japan Coast Guard says it detected a Chinese maritime research ship conducting activities near Okinotorishima in the Pacific on Monday without prior consent from Tokyo. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa said Tuesday that the government lodged a protest with the Chinese side. He said maritime scientific surveys without Japan's consent are not allowed and should be stopped immediately. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Tuesday that Okinotorishima is a reef, not an island. She added that an EEZ or a continental shelf cannot be established around it. She reiterated China's previous argument, saying that Japan's claim violates international law. The spokesperson also maintained that China's activities are an exercise of freedom of the high seas, and Japan has no right to interfere.
South China Morning Post
16-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China's moves in disputed waters spark concerns in Japan about ‘incremental control'
Japan has lodged a protest with Beijing over the suspected construction of a new offshore platform in disputed waters of the East China Sea – a development that analysts say could signal China's latest attempt to extend administrative control through incremental moves. Advertisement The protest came after satellite imagery showed two large Chinese ships positioned roughly 345km northwest of Kume Island in Okinawa prefecture – an area where the countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZs) overlap and remain subject to a long-running maritime dispute. The images, released by the European Space Agency and analysed alongside data from the international Automatic Identification System, identified the vessels as the 297-metre crane ship Zhenhua 30 and the 160-metre heavy-lift ship Debo 3. Both ships have remained in the same location since May 11, according to Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, supported by a flotilla of supply ships and tugboats. Japan's coastguard has reported that the activity appears linked to the construction of an 'offshore platform'. Tokyo lodged a formal complaint through China's embassy in Japan, citing the platform's location within overlapping EEZ claims and warning against unilateral actions that could alter the status quo. A China Coast Guard vessel sails near a Japan Coast Guard vessel off Uotsuri Island, one of a group of disputed islands called Senkaku Islands in Japan, also known in China as Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea in April. Photo: Kyodo via Reuters At the heart of the dispute is disagreement over how to draw the maritime boundary. Japan maintains the line should be based on the equidistant principle, or median line, between the countries' coastlines. China argues for a boundary that reflects its extended continental shelf – a method that would push the line eastward and give it control of more undersea resources.
