JOIN USJapanese coastguards said today they had warned away a Chinese boat spotted near an island at the heart of a escalating territorial row between Beijing and Tokyo.
The Chinese fisheries patrol boat was sighted near the main islet in the group of disputed islands, according to a spokesman from the coastguard in Okinawa, and contacted by radio.
"The ship was 42 kilometres (26 miles) north-northwest of Uotsurijima at 7:00 AM (2200 GMT yesterday) and was cruising east," he said."
Widespread anti-Japanese protests, some of them violent, have been held across China in recent days over the East China Sea islands known as Diaoyu by Beijing and Senkaku by Tokyo. They are claimed by both but controlled by Japan.
Major Japanese firms including Canon and Honda have suspended operations at several plants in China, according to officials and reports yesterday.
After meetings in Tokyo with senior Japanese officials yesterday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta -- who later travelled on to Beijing -- urged "calm and restraint on all sides".
A fresh wave of anti-Japan rallies was expected today, the anniversary of the 1931 "Mukden incident" that led to Japan's invasion of Manchuria, which is commemorated every year in China.
China and Japan have close trade and business ties, with two-way trade totalling USD 342.9 billion last year, according to Chinese figures.
But the two countries' political relationship is often tense due to the territorial dispute and Chinese resentment over past conflicts and atrocities.