Photo shows the Chinese government survey ship Xiang Yang Hong 22. (Photo not for sale)(Photo courtesy of the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters)(Kyodo)
Chinese coast guard ships have started escorting public vessels in Western Pacific waters where Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones overlap, a data analysis found Sunday, in an apparent move to claim jurisdiction in the area near Taiwan.
The escort by two coast guard vessels for the government survey ship Xiang Yang Hong 22 for three days from June 16 off the southern coast of Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni was Beijing’s apparent response to a Tokyo-Manila agreement in May to launch bilateral maritime delimitation negotiations.
The analysis of data, collected from the “automatic identification system” to track vessels, was carried out by ingeniSPACE, a geospatial data analysis firm, and Aki Mouri, an associate professor for modern China studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto.