Japan says China carried out analysis close to Pacific atoll

Japan authorities spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Japan has accused China of conducting unnotified maritime scientific analysis inside its unique financial zone round its southernmost island within the Pacific Ocean, Tokyo stated Tuesday (May 27, 2025).

The alleged exercise occurred on Monday (May 26, 2025) close to the distant atoll of Okinotori within the Philippine Sea, roughly midway between Taiwan and Guam. China has stated it doesn’t represent an island.

Japan’s coastguard on Monday (May 26, 2025) noticed a Chinese maritime survey vessel “extending what appeared to be a wire into the waters in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) 270 kilometres east of Okinotori island,” authorities spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi informed reporters.

“As the maritime scientific research by the vessel has not obtained Japan’s agreement, the coastguard demanded that the activity stops and we lodged a protest with the Chinese side through a diplomatic channel,” Mr. Hayashi stated.

The Chinese vessel left the EEZ at round 10:45 pm on Monday (May 26, 2025), Mr. Hayashi stated.

Under worldwide legislation, a coastal state has rights to the administration of pure sources and different financial actions inside its EEZ, which is inside 200 nautical miles, or 370 kilometres, of its coastlines.

Prior consent is critical for overseas vessels to hold out scientific analysis for non-economic functions overseas’s EEZ.

However China has stated Japan’s declare is invalid since Okinotori, some 1,700 kilometres (1,050 miles) south of Tokyo, is simply rocks and never an island.

Therefore it can’t be not regarded underneath the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as an entity round which Japan can set its EEZ, Beijing has stated.

Japan’s declare “violates international law”, China’s overseas ministry stated Tuesday (May 27, 2025).

Spokeswoman Mao Ning stated Chinese analysis vessels exercised “the freedom of the high seas” within the space and that Tokyo had “no right to interfere”.

Others together with Taiwan and South Korea additionally dispute Japan’s declare. In 2016 Japan briefly seized a Taiwanese fishing boat working within the space.

Japan has in recent times invested hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in planting coral across the atoll in try to cease erosion by the ocean.