Acting prime minister criticises Chinese ship’s ‘unsafe and unprofessional conduct’ after Australian sailors had requested it stay clear
Acting prime minister criticises Chinese ship’s ‘unsafe and unprofessional conduct’ after Australian sailors had requested it stay clear
The story says they were in international waters, inside the Japanese economic zone. It's easy enough to find a map of that area if you need it. What are you implying that they are trying to gloss over?
Japan's EEZ only gives Japan rights for resource exploitation and whatnot. For the purposes of this issue, it's international waters.
Though, Western media has a tendency of referring to disputed waters as "international" or belonging to whichever country is more friendly to the US.