VIENTIANE: Japan is “seriously concerned” about Beijing’s increasingly muscular claims in the South China Sea, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Asian leaders Wednesday. It also has a simmering territorial row with Tokyo over disputed islands in the East China Sea. “I am seriously concerned with the continuing attempts to change unilaterally the status quo in the East and South China Sea,” Abe said at a regional summit in Laos hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). China has ignored the ruling, announcing penalties for “illegal” fishing in the sea and continuing its reclamation activities. They are known as the Senkakus in Japan and as the Diaoyus in China.

Source: Manila Times September 07, 2016 10:30 UTC