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No Let Up In Japan-China Spats Over Disputed Islands

235 days ago

(RTTNews) - Japan has lodged a protest with China over the "intrusion" of four Chinese patrol boats into Japanese waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday that Japan would step up its efforts to assert its position on the islands to the international community.

He said the two countries must hold dialog in a quiet environment, and called for self-restraint by China on the issue.

Gemba said Japan had so far not made its stance on the islands known to the international community in concrete terms, partly because it saw no dispute over their sovereignty.

Meanwhile, China said four of its marine surveillance ships patrolled in the waters off the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku in Japan) on Tuesday after what it called the Japanese right-winger's intrusion.

China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes the Japanese right-wingers' illegal entrance into the waters off the Diaoyu Islands and is keeping high vigilance to their intention and purpose, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

"Provocation of this kind will make the situation more complicated if not stopped," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

The patrol team is carrying out normal "rights-safeguarding activities" around the Diaoyu Islands, said a statement from the State Oceanic Administration.

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