China has stated that the entry of its navy survey ship into Japan's territorial waters near the southwestern islands was justified, claiming that this action was "completely legitimate." The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning emphasized that the area is designated for international navigation as outlined by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

In response to the incident, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi confirmed that Tokyo has officially protested to Beijing and noted that Japan will keep a close watch on Chinese military activities in the region. This latest entry represents the tenth time since November 2021 that a Chinese survey vessel has intruded into Japanese waters off Kagoshima Prefecture.

The situation has escalated after Japan recently reported a Chinese military spy plane breaching its airspace over the East China Sea, close to the Nagasaki islands. In light of these developments, Mao reiterated that there is no necessity to link these recent occurrences and suggested that Beijing's military aircraft have no intention of infringing upon another nation's airspace, as previously noted by Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian.