A new diplomatic protest from Tokyo over suspected marine surveys by a Chinese vessel in contested waters has renewed focus on a long-standing unresolved issue: the lack of agreement between Japan and China on their maritime boundaries in the East China Sea.
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At the centre of the row is a clash of interpretations. While Japan insists the Chinese survey ship violated its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by conducting underwater research without getting its prior consent, analysts point out that China does not recognise Tokyo’s claim to the area and has long rejected the median line Japan uses as the boundary.
This dispute has become a persistent flashpoint, complicated by rising strategic competition between China and Japan, and limited avenues for enforcement, according to the analysts.
The foreign ministry in Tokyo lodged a formal complaint with Beijing after the Chinese vessel, Xiang Yang Hong 22, was spotted on Sunday lowering what appeared to be survey equipment into the sea about 385km (239 miles) west of Amami Oshima, a Japanese island in the country’s southwest. Japan said the activity constituted unauthorised maritime research in its EEZ.
The same vessel was also later observed operating in the same vicinity on Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting repeated warnings from the Japanese coastguard. On each occasion, the ship crossed the median line that Japan considers the de facto boundary marking its EEZ, according to media reports.
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While Beijing has not publicly responded to the incidents, it has consistently maintained that there is no official maritime boundary in the East China Sea and rejects Japan’s use of a median line as the marker. Instead, it argues that its rights extend further east because the undersea continental shelf connected to its coast stretches in that direction.