Japan Reports Chinese Coast Guard Ships Near Senkakus
Japan’s coast guard spotted two China Coast Guard ships in the contiguous zone outside the Senkaku Islands’ territorial waters on Sunday, the 71st consecutive day Chinese government vessels were confirmed there, Sankei Shimbun reported. The Naha-based 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters said both ships carried cannon-type guns, and Japanese patrol vessels warned them not to approach territorial waters.
Separately, Taiwan’s Central News Agency interviewed Kyushu University professor Chisako Masuo on October 14. She said China’s push to expand enforcement patrols in waters east of Taiwan is a shared interest of Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, whose exclusive economic zones overlap in that sea. Masuo said such patrols would “absolutely not disappear” and that Beijing is likely to keep using gray-zone methods short of war.
She also said she sees Japanese concern about a Taiwan contingency fading. Her remarks are one analyst’s assessment, not an official position.
Neither report described a new confrontation east of Taiwan.