Japan orders Chinese survey ship out of economic zone

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan said Tuesday a Chinese survey ship had left its exclusive economic zone after the coast guard repeatedly ordered it to stop what Tokyo called unauthorized research operations.

The Chinese vessel Kexue was first spotted 27 September about 70 kilometers north of Ishigaki island in Okinawa prefecture, intermittently lowering wire-like objects into the sea, coast guard spokesperson Masashi Asano said.

The vessel left Friday after Japan sent “radio messages demanding the survey be halted, stating that scientific research in our maritime zone without... consent will not be tolerated,” Asano said.

Japan has recorded 14 unauthorized surveys by Chinese vessels in its EEZ this year, up from six last year and one or two annually during the previous three years.

Asano said such activity had “surged” around the time Japan and the Philippines announced plans to begin negotiations over their maritime boundary.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed in May to begin formal negotiations to delimit the two countries’ EEZ and continental shelf boundaries.