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LEAD: Chinese ships spotted near Senkaku Islands
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NAHA, Japan, Nov. 20 -- (Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING INFO AT 3RD AND 5TH GRAFS)
Two Chinese surveillance ships were spotted sailing near Japan's Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Saturday morning, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said its aircraft found one Chinese ship at around 8:25 a.m. about 37 kilometers west-northwest of the islands just outside Japan's territorial waters.
It said it warned by radio that the ships -- one of which was confirmed to be a state-of-the-art fishery patrol boat capable of carrying around two helicopters -- should not enter Japanese waters. The Chinese ships responded that they were on a legitimate mission, it added.
The Senkaku Islands, administered by Japan but also claimed by China, have been at the center of one of the worst bilateral diplomatic spats in years since the Sept. 7 collisions between Chinese and Japanese vessels near there. After the collisions, Beijing sent patrol vessels to the disputed waters several times.
Following the latest appearance of the Chinese ships identified as Yuzheng 310 and Yuzheng 201, the Japanese government set up a liaison office at the prime minister's office to gather information.
Also Saturday, Tokyo police conducted an on-site inspection of a Japan Coast Guard patrol boat, a crew member of which posted online a video of the collisions that the government had kept from the view of the public.
Police also questioned on a voluntary basis the 43-year-old navigator of the patrol vessel Uranami of the Kobe Coast Guard Office in line with their goal of winding down the investigation by the end of the year.
The Coast Guard member allegedly violated the National Public Service Law, which prohibits civil servants from divulging secrets obtained in the course of their work, by posting on the YouTube site on Nov. 4 footage of the collisions between a Chinese trawler and Coast Guard patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Police and prosecutors decided this week to continue questioning the officer on a voluntary basis without arresting him as they have been able to secure enough evidence to confirm the explanations he has given during days of questioning so far.
The officer was quoted as telling investigators that a colleague had downloaded the video footage from the Japan Coast Guard Academy's shared online folder onto a personal computer on the Uranami in late September and he saved it on a USB data storage device in mid-October.
(c) 2010 Kyodo News International, Inc.
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