UPDATE - Tokyo regrets China's buoy on ‘Japan's southern continental shelf’

UPDATES WITH REACTION FROM BEIJING; CHANGES DECK

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Japan on Friday claimed that China had installed a buoy "on its southern continental shelf," regretting Beijing’s move in the maritime waters.

Chinese survey ship Xiang Yang Hong 22 set up the buoy in mid-June.

The buoy was installed in the waters off Japan's western main island of Shikoku and north of the southernmost Okinotori Island.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, the top government spokesman, called it "regrettable," and asked Beijing “not to undermine Japan's maritime interests.”

Beijing told Japan that the buoy was to “monitor tsunami” and it “does not intend to infringe” on Tokyo's sovereignty over the continental shelf, Hayashi said.

However, China Friday said Japan “has no right to interfere” in the operations of its vessel, state media reported.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Chinese vessels “operate in the high seas of the western Pacific Ocean setting up tsunami buoys for scientific research and public welfare purposes.”

It is an “internationally accepted practice,” Mao told reporters in Beijing.

“The high seas are open to all countries, and all countries have the freedom to conduct scientific research in these waters,” Mao said, citing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China on Thursday said it expelled several Japanese vessels that entered "illegally" in the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands in July 2-4.

Japan and China have been in a long-running dispute over the islands, which Tokyo calls the Senkaku and Beijing calls the Diaoyu.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Coast Guard on Friday boarded and inspected the Taiwanese fishing vessel Fuyang 226, northeast of the island nation.

According to CNA News, the vessel’s Taiwanese captain and two crew “were taken onboard a Japanese boat for questioning.”

The Taiwanese vessel also had six Indonesian fishers who were not taken to the Japanese vessel during the investigation.