A Chinese aircraft carrier entered Japan’s contiguous waters for the first time on Wednesday, drawing strong rebukes from the Japanese authorities.

What Happened: The carrier, accompanied by two destroyers, sailed between Japan’s southern Yonaguni and Iriomote islands. This area extends up to 24 nautical miles from Japan’s coastline, where Japan can exert some controls as defined by the United Nations, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Moriya expressed Tokyo’s “serious concerns” to Beijing, calling the incident “utterly unacceptable from the perspective of the security environment of Japan and the region.”

Moriya stated that Japan would continue to monitor Chinese naval activities and take all necessary measures for vigilance and surveillance.

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Last month, Japan lodged a protest with China after a Chinese naval survey vessel entered Japanese waters, following an airspace breach. In July, a Japanese navy destroyer made a rare entry into China’s territorial waters near Taiwan.

Earlier on Wednesday, Taiwan’s defense ministry reported spotting the same Chinese aircraft carrier group sailing through waters off its east coast towards Yonaguni. Taiwan tracked the ships and sent its forces to monitor them. China’s defense ministry did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Why It Matters: The incident comes amid a backdrop of increasing regional tensions and strategic maneuvers. In May, Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea to revive trade and security dialogues that had stalled due to global tensions. The summit aimed to resume three-party free trade agreement negotiations, which had been on hold since 2019. Li emphasized the need to separate politics from economic issues, calling for an end to protectionism and the decoupling of supply chains.

In July, Japan and the Philippines, two key U.S. allies, signed a landmark defense pact to counter China’s increasing assertiveness. The “Reciprocal Access Agreement” allows for the exchange of military forces for training and joint military drills between Tokyo and Manila. This move was seen as a strategic deterrent beyond U.S. support in light of rising tensions in the South China Sea.

Additionally, the U.S. and Japan are on the verge of finalizing a deal to limit the export of chip technology to China. This agreement aims to address loopholes in existing export rules and impose new restrictions to curb the rapid advancements of Chinese companies in chip production. The negotiations involve officials from the U.S., Japan, and the Netherlands, aiming to establish complementary export control regimes.

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Image by Thomas Classen via Flickr

This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari