Chinese activists arrested by Japan after landing on disputed island - Washington Post

Shortly after the activists' arrest, China vowed to lodge a formal complaint with Japan.

The activists, more than a dozen in all, had set out from Hong Kong for the islands — called Diaoyu by the Chinese and Senkaku by Japan. They carried with them five Chinese flags, reportedly intending to evade Japanese authorities patrolling the islands and to use the flags to claim the territory for China.

Many Chinese activists have embarked on similar forays in recent years, and several have been turned away by Japanese authorities.

According to the group behind Wednesday's attempt, the party encountered setbacks along the way, including problems with weather and lost food supplies before finally nearing the islands Wednesday afternoon.

The group's representative said the activists evaded several Japanese coast guard boats, which tried to pummel them with water cannons. Japanese authorities said they arrested five of the activists after some of them managed to swim ashore.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement urging Japan to refrain from doing anything that would endanger Chinese citizens or their property.

In a separate protest Wednesday, a group of South Koreans, who harbor a similar grudge stemming from the war, swam to a different set of islands in dispute between South Korea and Japan. That incident, however, centered around a 137-mile relay swim that was led by a South Korean pop singer.

The swim followed a controversial first-ever visit last week to the islands by a South Korean president — an event that prompted Japan to lodge a formal complaint of its own with South Korea and order its senior diplomat to return from Seoul.