While Japan insists the Chinese survey ship violated its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by conducting underwater research without getting its prior consent, analysts point out that China does not recognise Tokyo’s claim to the area and has long rejected the median line Japan uses as the boundary. This dispute has become a persistent flashpoint, complicated by rising strategic competition between China and Japan, and limited avenues for enforcement, according to the analysts. On each occasion, the ship crossed the median line that Japan considers the de facto boundary marking its EEZ, according to media reports. AdvertisementWhile Beijing has not publicly responded to the incidents, it has consistently maintained that there is no official maritime boundary in the East China Sea and rejects Japan’s use of a median line as the marker. Instead, it argues that its rights extend further east because the undersea continental shelf connected to its coast stretches in that direction.