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Raisethefist.com: Japan boats reach disputed islands
Japan boats reach disputed islands
by anonymous Sat Aug 18 18:05:00 PDT 2012
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Boats carrying dozens of Japanese nationalist activists have moored off a group of disputed islands, amid a bitter sovereignty row with China.
A reporter with the AFP new agency, who is with the flotilla, said about a dozen people swam ashore, despite being denied permission to land by Tokyo.
A group of pro-China activists landed on the islands earlier this week.
The Senkaku islands, called Diaoyu in China, are under Japan's control but are claimed by China and Taiwan.
They lie on a vital shipping lane, and are surrounded by deposits of oil and gas.
The stunt by pro-China activists earlier in the week, who have all since left Japan, enraged Japanese nationalist groups.
They launched their flotilla on Saturday, saying they wanted to commemorate the Japanese who died near the islands in World War II.
AFP says the activists are now planning to climb to the highest point of the island and plant a Japanese flag.
China has said the move undermines its territorial sovereignty.
'Illegal' move
The AFP journalist aboard one of the boats confirmed that the flotilla had arrived off the main island,
The agency quoted Kenichi Kojima, a local politician from Kanagawa, near Tokyo, as saying: "I want to show the international community that these islands are ours. It is Japan's future at stake."
Earlier, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gan said: "Any unilateral action taken by Japan on the Diaoyu Islands is illegal and invalid."
Earlier this week, activists sailed to the disputed island chain from Hong Kong in a protest aimed at promoting Chinese sovereignty.
Chinese state media had praised Japan's "wise" decision to free them, saying that the speedy action had averted a deterioration in relations.
Rows over the disputed islands have caused Sino-Japanese ties to freeze in the past.
China claims the islands have been a part of its territory since ancient times, but Japan says it took control of the archipelago in the late 1890s after making sure they were uninhabited.
In September 2010, relations plummeted after the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain near the islands.
The captain was accused of ramming two Japanese patrol vessels in the area, but Japan eventually dropped the charges against him.
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