Chinese fisheries patrol boat sets sail for waters near Senkakus+

BEIJING, Oct. 20 Kyodo -
A Chinese fisheries patrol boat last week set sail for waters near a chain of
Japan-administered islets in order to protect a fishing boat, a Chinese
newspaper reported Wednesday, raising the possibility of ties with Japan once
again being strained.
The Beijing Youth Daily said the patrol boat, belonging to the Fishing Bureau
of the Agriculture Ministry, left Yantai in Shandong Province on Oct. 14, but
is not known whether it arrived in the waters where a Chinese fishing boat
collided with two Japanese Coast Guard boats last month.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said that as of 3 p.m.
Wednesday Japan has not observed the patrol boat around the islands.
Sengoku, the top government spokesman, said that the Japan Coast Guard will
maintain vigilance over maritime activities around the islands and the
government will ''make a necessary request (to China) through diplomatic
channels'' if it confirms the existence of a Chinese vessel coming near a zone
just outside Japanese territorial waters.
Japan-China relations worsened to the lowest point in years in the wake of a
dispute stemming from Japan's arrest of the Chinese fishing boat captain in
early September over the collisions near the Senkaku Islands. Beijing claims
the islets, which it calls Diaoyu, have been Chinese territory since ancient
times.
When the ship left port, a senior member of the bureau's Fisheries Command
Center said, ''Patrolling the Diaoyu is for protecting the nation's sovereign
rights, and for protecting the legal interests of fishing people.''
From late September to early October, two Chinese fisheries patrol boats sailed
for more than a week near the Senkaku Islands before heading back to China.
The command center said in late September that it would start routine patrols
in the islands region, and it would strengthen its patrolling to protect the
safety of fishermen's lives and assets.
==Kyodo