Tokyo has lodged a protest with Beijing against unannounced research activities being carried out by a Chinese ship in Japan's exclusive economic zone around Okinotorishima Island, the nation's southernmost territory, officials in Tokyo said Wednesday.
China has claimed the small island 1,740 km south of the mainland is merely a rock, rather than a significant piece of territory worthy of putting an EEZ around. EEZs are based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Okinotorishima Island is listed as being 4.8 km long, but most of it is submerged.