Mr. Chikao Kawai, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lodges a Protest against Dr. Han Zhiqiang, Acting Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Japan

December 13, 2012
Japanese

On December 13, Mr. Chikao Kawai, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, summoned Dr. Han Zhiqiang, the Acting Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Japan, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at around 1:15 p.m. and lodged a strong protest against the intrusion of an airplane belonging to the State Oceanic Administration (People’s Republic of China) into Japanese territorial air space and also against the intrusion of four vessels belonging to the State Oceanic Administration into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the morning of the same day.
Vice-Minister Kawai lodged a very strong protest against the intrusion into Japanese air space by the government airplane t and the intrusion into Japanese territorial waters by the government vessels. He strongly requested that the Chinese government take steps to prevent the recurrence of the intrusion into Japan’s territorial air space and its territorial waters, and the prompt exit of the government vessels currently still in Japanese territorial waters.
Dr. Han Zhiqiang, Acting Chinese Ambassador to Japan, stated China’s own assertion regarding the Senkaku Islands and replied that he could not accept the representations, while stating that he would report the protest from Vice-Minister Kawai to the Chinese government. He added that there was no change concerning the Chinese side’s policy of solving the issue peacefully through communication between Japan and China. In response to this, Vice-Minister Kawai stated the basic stance of Japan concerning the Senkaku Islands and stated that he could not accept China’s own assertion regarding the issue

(* The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original in Japanese.)

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