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Mr. Kenichiro Sasae, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, lodges a protest against Mr. Cheng Yonghua, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Japan

August 24, 2011
Japanese

1. On Wednesday, August 24, Mr. Kenichiro Sasae, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, lodged a protest against Mr. Cheng Yonghua, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to Japan, regarding the entry of Chinese fishing surveillance vessels into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands that same morning.
   
   
2. Vice-Minister Sasae stated the following points:
    1) Early morning on Wednesday, August 24, the Japan Coast Guard identified the entry of two Chinese fishing surveillance vessels, the Yuzheng 31001 and the Yuzheng 201, into Japanese territorial waters around Kuba Island. I understand that the two vessels asserted China’s own claims to the Senkaku Islands and also asserted that they were undertaking enforcement activities in accordance with law within waters under their own country’s jurisdiction.
   
    2) The Senkaku Islands are an inherent territory of Japan. The Chinese vessels entered into Japan’s territorial waters around the Islands despite repeated warnings from the Japanese side, which is extremely serious and deplorable. Japan does not consider the navigation of the two Chinese government vessels as innocent passage recognized under international law, and thus the Japanese Government strongly protests the Chinese side. 
   
    3) The leaders of both China and Japan have agreed to improve their bilateral relations and deepen their countries’ Mutually Beneficial Relationships based on Common Strategic Interests. This incident goes against this agreement. Japan strongly demands that an incident like this never happen again.
   
   
3. In response, Ambassador Cheng stated that he will immediately report on Japan’s protest to his home country. He also expressed China’s own position about the Senkaku Islands, to which Vice-Minister Sasae responded by stating the basic position of Japan on the Senkaku Islands and strongly demanding that the Chinese side prevent an incident like this  from ever happening again.

• (*This is a provisional translation. The above date denotes the date of the issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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