Since the start of Japan’s discharge into the sea of water treated from the Fukushima nuclear power plant on August 24, relations have been at their lowest point between Tokyo and Beijing. A Chinese surveillance buoy floating in Japanese waters takes them up a notch. Japan has officially protested to the Chinese authorities and is demanding “ immediate withdrawal » of this buoy.
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It is a yellow buoy about ten meters wide with a Chinese inscription which triggers the anger of Japan. A coast guard boat spotted the object floating in the waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone on July 11, about 80 kilometers to the northwest from the Senkaku Islands. Uninhabited islands controlled by Japan, but claimed by China under the name “Diaoyu”.
Japan requests the “ immediate removal of the buoy »
“ We have protested in both Tokyo and Beijing since the discovery by the Japanese coast guard in July of a buoy » in the Japanese exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the East China Sea, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official told AFP. “We have requested the immediate removal of the buoy », added this official on condition of anonymity.
China would use such buoys to measure currents and wave heights in order to send its ships safely to this area, writes the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun. The newspaper also points out that the United Nations Convention on Maritime Law prohibits such incursions into another country’s EEZ. Already in 2016 and 2018, Chinese buoys were found in Japanese waters.
Between Tokyo and Beijing, tensions rise a notch
Since discharge of water from Fukushima, nothing is going well between the two Asian countries: Beijing has since suspended all its seafood imports Japanese, causing shipments of food products from Japan to China to fall by 41.2% in August, according to data published this Wednesday by Tokyo.
Japan also accuses Beijing of anti-Japanese acts, such as this wave countless phone calls spam received by its embassy in China, as well as other government organizations, businesses and citizens.
Read alsoDischarge of Fukushima water: “This is taking a geopolitical turn in China”
(And with AFP)