BEIJING/TAIPEI -- China and Taiwan have reacted sharply against a Japanese local municipality's move to rename an area covering the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.
"It is a provocation against China's territorial sovereignty. It is illegal and invalid. We are strongly opposed to it," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference on Monday, responding to the renaming move by the Ishigaki municipal assembly in the preferecture. The assembly passed a proposed name change on the day.
Zhao said China had lodged a protest with Japan through diplomatic channels, saying that China "reserves" a right to take countermeasures.
Taiwan's Foreign Ministry also said in a statement on Monday: "The Diaoyutai [Taiwanese name for the Senkakus] is our inherent territory. We expressed our regret and made a strict protest to Japan."
In Taiwan's eastern Yilan County, a planned protest using a fishing boat fleet sent to the Senkaku Islands may take place on July 7, which is the 83rd anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937 that triggered the Sino-Japanese war.
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