Three Chinese coast guard ships enter Japanese waters near Senkakus.

Three Chinese coast guard ships enter Japanese waters near Senkakus.(TJN).

NAHA (Jiji Press) — Three Chinese coast guard ships entered Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Thursday morning.

This is the first such intrusion by a Chinese government ship since Oct. 18 and the 26th this year.

The three ships — the Haijing 2101, the Haijing 2112 and the Haijing 2305 — crossed into the Japanese waters west-northwest of Uotsurijima, the largest island in the Japanese -administered Senkaku chain, around 10 a.m., according to the Japan Coast Guard’s 11th regional headquarters in Naha, the capital of the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa.

A Japan Coast Guard patrol ship warned the three vessels to leave the area, but they did not comply immediately. China claims the uninhabited islands, which it calls Diaoyu.