Chinese ships entered territorial waters of Japan off the Senkaku Islands

TOKYO (RIA Novosti): Ksenia Naka. Four Chinese ships entered Japanese territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands and stayed there for several hours, Kyodo reported .
Early Saturday morning, four PRC patrol ships ent-ered the territorial waters of Japan in the area of the Senkaku Islands (Chinese name for the Diaoyu Islands), which China claims , and remained there until almost noon.
In doing so, they tried to approach the Japanese fishing vessels. The Japanese Maritime Security Service states that the Chinese ships entered the territorial waters of Japan in the area for the 26th time since the beginning of the year. An automatic cannon was seen on one of the Chinese ships.
The Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands) are the subject of a territorial dispute between China and Japan.
Japan claims to have occupied them since 1895, in Beijing they remind that on Japanese maps of 1783 and 1785 Diaoyu (Senkaku) is designated as Chinese territory. After World War II, the islands were under US control and were ceded to Japan in 1972. On Taiwan and mainland China believe that Japan keeps them illegally. Tokyobelieves that China and Taiwan began to lay claim to the islands since the 1970s, when it became clear that their waters are rich in minerals.
The territorial dispute escalated even more after the Japanese government bought out three of the five islands of the said archipelago from a private Japanese owner in 2012, thus highlighting their state status.