Source: Daily Yomiuri
The online edition of Global Times, a Chinese newspaper specializing in international affairs, reported Tuesday that the Chinese government dispatched three fishery patrol boats last Thursday to waters off the Senkaku Islands.
Sources on Wednesday said the boats may still be operating in the waters.
China dispatched two fishery patrol boats to the waters on Sept. 24, after collisions between a Chinese fishing vessel and two Japan Coast Guard patrol boats on Sept. 7 off the islands, which are known as the Diaoyu Islands in China.
However, those patrol vessels left the area on Oct. 6, two days after Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks in Brussels.
The latest dispatch of three patrol vessels is apparently an attempt by Beijing to establish an around-the-clock presence near the islands.
“Going to waters off the Diaoyu Islands and protecting [Chinese] fishing activities there is part of protecting national sovereignty and the legal interests of fishermen,†an official of China’s Agriculture Ministry, which is in charge of supervising fishery patrol boats, said last Thursday.