China lodges protest over Diaoyu survey
Source: Agencies |
September 3, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TOKYO officials planning to buy the Diaoyu Islands, which are at the center of a territorial dispute with China, surveyed the area yesterday, with Beijing lodging a serious protest at the Japanese action.
Their boat, carrying 25 experts and officials as well as journalists, circled the five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea but did not land.
China responded quickly to the survey, which was said to have taken less than 10 hours, saying any unilateral action by Japan on the islands was illegal and invalid.
The Foreign Ministry said it had already made "solemn representations" to Japan.
"The Chinese side reiterates that any unilateral action by the Japanese side on the Diaoyu Islands is illegal, invalid, and will not change the reality that the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islands belong to Chinese territory," the ministry said.
Tokyo officials say the survey was crucial and included measuring the water depth to build a dock at the islands.
However, Japan's central government did not grant permission to the officials to land on the Diaoyu Islands.
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has raised 1.45 billion yen (US$19 million) in private donations to buy the islands from the Japanese family that owns them.
Japan's national government is also considering buying the islands for 2.05 billion yen from the same landowners with whom Ishihara is negotiating, yesterday's Nikkei newspaper said.
Seiichiro Sakamaki, leader of the Tokyo survey team which was heading back to Okinawa last night, stressed that the city was going to buy the islands.
"The basic point is that those who are about to buy property need to look at it," he said.
Hundreds of Chinese have staged anti-Japan demonstrations in several cities over the island dispute.
Anti-Japanese sentiment runs deep in China because of bitter memories of atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Last month, Japan detained and later released 14 Hong Kong activists who landed on the Diaoyu Islands. Japanese nationalists later made similar trips to the islands.
Their boat, carrying 25 experts and officials as well as journalists, circled the five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea but did not land.
China responded quickly to the survey, which was said to have taken less than 10 hours, saying any unilateral action by Japan on the islands was illegal and invalid.
The Foreign Ministry said it had already made "solemn representations" to Japan.
"The Chinese side reiterates that any unilateral action by the Japanese side on the Diaoyu Islands is illegal, invalid, and will not change the reality that the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islands belong to Chinese territory," the ministry said.
Tokyo officials say the survey was crucial and included measuring the water depth to build a dock at the islands.
However, Japan's central government did not grant permission to the officials to land on the Diaoyu Islands.
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has raised 1.45 billion yen (US$19 million) in private donations to buy the islands from the Japanese family that owns them.
Japan's national government is also considering buying the islands for 2.05 billion yen from the same landowners with whom Ishihara is negotiating, yesterday's Nikkei newspaper said.
Seiichiro Sakamaki, leader of the Tokyo survey team which was heading back to Okinawa last night, stressed that the city was going to buy the islands.
"The basic point is that those who are about to buy property need to look at it," he said.
Hundreds of Chinese have staged anti-Japan demonstrations in several cities over the island dispute.
Anti-Japanese sentiment runs deep in China because of bitter memories of atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Last month, Japan detained and later released 14 Hong Kong activists who landed on the Diaoyu Islands. Japanese nationalists later made similar trips to the islands.
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