SHANGHAI (Interfax-China) -- The territorial dispute between China and Japan continues to worsen following a decision by the government in Tokyo last week to allow a private oil company to drill for gas in the area.
Last Friday, Cui Tiankai, the Director General of the Asian Affairs Department of Chinese Foreign Ministry, summoned Chihiro Atsumi, an official with the Japanese Embassy in China, to lodge a formal protest against the decision by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's to grant test drilling rights to Teikoku Oil in the disputed areas of the East China Sea.
The dispute actually centers on a number of gas fields currently being developed by China, including the Chunxiao gas field, which is likely to go into full production later this year. While China states emphatically that the fields lie within its sovereign waters, Japan claims that they stray into its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). A request by Tokyo to provide the detailed coordinates of the gas fields - as a precondition for further talks - was rejected by Beijing last year.
Japan has since raised the stakes, claiming that at least nine of China's concessions stray beyond what Japan regards as the dividing line between the two countries, with three said to lie entirely within Japanese waters. Japan decided to accept applications for drilling rights earlier in the year, and finally decided to give the nod to Teikoku Oil last Thursday.
"The move by Japan is a serious provocation and violates China's sovereign rights and interests," said Cui Tiankai, "as well as the rules of United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea [UNCLOS]. China strongly protests against the move."
Cui pointed out that China and Japan have yet not demarcated the East China Sea and that the two countries remain deeply divided on the issue. "It is ungrounded for Japan to grant the test-drilling rights to Japanese private company in the disputed sea area using its so-called unilateral 'median line' as an excuse. China reaffirms clearly that it has never recognized the so-called 'median line' and finds it impossible to recognize it," said Cui.
"China and Japan should handle their differences properly and actively explore the situation through dialogue and consultations conducted on the basis of equality, which is an important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries," stressed Cui.
Last Friday, the Chinese Embassy in Japan also lodged a protest with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"The East China Sea issue is a very complicated historical one, which has become more serious against the background of the global energy crisis and the unavoidable competition [for resources] between China and Japan," Guo Dingping, with the Japan Research Center of Fudan University in Shanghai, told Interfax.
"When it comes to border demarcations, there is no compromise since it is a completely sovereign issue," said Guo, "The best way to cool down the issue is to launch joint exploitation while setting aside the political dispute."
Guo said the use of military force would be harmful to both countries, but he believed the prospect to be unlikely. He said that under the negotiation mechanism for the East China Sea, the two countries would launch a third round of talks on the issue very soon.
(c) InterFax-China 2005. For more intelligence on Chinese metals and mining, or call Alison Crawford in London on +44 (0) 20 7256 3919.
