“The situation surrounding the Japan-China relationship is markedly deteriorating”, he told Cheng, according to the ministry’s statement on its website.
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The two countries have a festering dispute over the ownership of Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku.
On Saturday Japanese maritime officials reported seeing some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coastguard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailing into the same waters.
Dozens of Chinese vessels sailed near the islands on the weekend raising alarm in Japan.
Cheng was also summoned on Friday by vice minister Shinsuke Sugiyama after two Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels entered Japan’s territorial waters.
Their confirmed presence in the South China Sea quashes China’s repeated claims it was never planning to militarise the region.
China has refused to recognise the court ruling on a case brought by the Philippines.
China and Japan are already at loggerheads with each other over the East China Sea islands. “Each of the three islets will soon have hangar space for 24 fighter jets plus 3-4 larger planes”.
“They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian goal”, Gregory Poling, director of CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the Times.
Poling said the appearance of the reinforced hangers was not surprising since they’re sitting at the end of runways larger than any non-military objective would require. He also suggested China was merely “giving itself the option to use these reefs as military facilities”, so it can mount “a robust defense of those places, or even a power projection”.
Admiral Scott Swift, the top USA naval officer in Asia, plans to meet the media Tuesday in Qingdao.
Philippine-Chinese ties have frayed in recent years due to growing tensions over conflicting claims in the South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Ramos gave no details of his itinerary or of those he planned to meet, except for Wu Shicun, who heads the National Institute for South China Sea Studies think-tank, based on China’s southern island of Hainan.
Beijing denies the accusations and says United States patrols have ramped up tensions.
Ramos on Monday officially began his mission as special envoy to China with a trip to Hong Kong to break the ice with old Chinese friends in the hope of rekindling relations with the superpower country, which has been strained by the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
Other reports of harassment appear to show China’s determination to monopolize marine archaeology in the South China Sea, which is littered with the wrecks of ships of all nationalities.
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Washington regularly accuses Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea, saying it has built runways and deployed weapons to the islands.
