Chinese ships near disputed islands for 11th day

Naha(Japan): Chinese surveillance ships sailed in an area just outside Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea today for the 11th day in a row, the Japan Coast Guard said. [caption id=“attachment_507778” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Getty Images.[/caption] The coast guard has been warning the ships— four maritime surveillance vessels and two fisheries patrol vessels—not to enter Japanese territorial waters. The Japan-controlled islands are claimed by China. One of the maritime surveillance ships in the so-called contiguous zone put up a message in Chinese on an electronic board telling a patrol boat of the coast guard to “leave” the area as it is “in China’s jurisdictional waters” and that the Japanese boat is “violating the law,” according to the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture. One of the fisheries patrol ships entered the contiguous zone from waters off Kuba, one of the islands making up the Senkaku chain, around 10 pm yesterday, according to the coast guard. PTI