Japan spots Chinese spy ship near disputed isles

Japan said Friday it was monitoring waters near islands disputed with China in the East China Sea after it spotted a naval intelligence ship from the country operating in a new area for the first time. Japan's Defence Ministry said late Thursday a P-3C patrol aircraft observed the Dongdiao-class intelligence vessel near territorial waters of the Senkaku Islands, which Japan administers but China claims as the Diaoyus.
The ship repeatedly moved back and forth in the area until Thursday evening before departing, never breaching Japan's 12-nautical-mile territorial waters, the ministry statement said. Japanese defence minister General Nakatani called the ship's moves "unusual" at a regular press conference Friday, saying it made "repeated eastward and westward moves in one day".
The defence ministry will keep up monitoring of the Chinese navy and "make utmost efforts in patrolling the sea and air surrounding Japan", Nakatani said. In Beijing, the Chinese government defended the ship's operations as standard. "The Chinese naval vessel is conducting normal activities," spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing. "It is in line with international law," he added. "There is nothing disputable about that." Japan and China have routinely butted heads over ownership of the uninhabited islets, as Chinese state ships - mostly coast guard - and aircraft have approached them on and off to back up Beijing's claims and test Japan's response.
Relations between Japan and China hit multi-year lows after the Japanese government in September 2012 moved to increase its formal control by nationalising some of the islands. But China and Japan - Asia's two biggest economies, respectively - have taken steps to improve ties. They issued carefully worded statements on the dispute ahead of a summit last year in Beijing between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The two sides basically acknowledged they had different views on tensions emanating from the issue but agreed on the need for keeping them under control.