China today rejected protests by Japan over its unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over the disputed Tokyo-administered islands in the East China Sea.
Rejecting Japan's dissent, Han Zhiqiang, a minister at the Chinese Embassy in Japan said Beijing has a right to do so as was its territory.
Japan calls the chain of uninhabited islands as Senkakus while China terms them as Diaoyu islets.
"The Diaoyu islands are inherent territory of China and its airspace belongs to it," state-run CCTV quoted Han as saying.
"Japan does not have the right to intervene. China's move confirms to international laws and practises. The purpose of the move is to protect the national sovereignty and safety of China's land and air and not aimed at targeting any country," he said.
Meanwhile, United States has said the move by China will only increase tensions in the region and create risks of an incident.
"This unilateral action constitutes an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea," US Secretary of State John Kerry was quoted by the media as saying in Geneva.
He made it clear that United States does not support efforts to apply an air identification zone to foreign aircraft that do not intend to enter the country's national airspace.
"We urge China not to implement its threat to take action against aircraft that do not identify themselves or obey orders from Beijing," Kerry said.
Kerry said US have urged China to "exercise caution and restraint, and we are consulting with Japan and other affected parties, throughout the region".
China announced the Zone yesterday saying that all the foreign aircraft has to identify themselves and inform the flight path to China.
Japan's foreign ministry official Junichi Ihara said Tokyo has lodged a "serious protest" over China's move.
The move was "extremely dangerous" and "could trigger unpredictable events", Japan Times quoted Junichi Ihara, chief of the ministry's Asian and Oceania Affairs Bureau as saying.
Ihara, lodged a protest by phone with Han Zhiqiang, a minister at the Chinese Embassy, the daily quoted a statement issued by Japanese Foreign Ministry as saying.
He told Han that Japan can "never accept the zone set up by China," as it includes the Senkakus islands.
He further said the new zone will "escalate" already fraught bilateral ties over the uninhabited but potentially resource-rich islet chain, branding China's move "very dangerous," the statement said.
