China submits oceanic claims to UN
2012-12-14 22:23
Beijing - China provided the United Nations (UN) with
detailed claims to waters in the East China Sea on Friday, apparently padding
out its legal argument in an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan.
The Foreign Ministry said it submitted documents claiming
waters extending beyond its 370km exclusive economic zone.
It said geological features dictated that China's claim
extended to the edge of the continental shelf off the Chinese coast, about 200km
from Japan's Okinawa island.
A statement posted to the Foreign Ministry's website gave
no specifics, but China had pledged to make such a submission shortly after its
dispute with Japan over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea flared again
in September.
Japan angered China by buying the islands from their
private Japanese owners to block a rival bid by Tokyo's nationalist mayor, a
move Japan had hoped would prevent a bigger crisis.
Violent anti-Japanese protests then broke out across
China to assert what many Chinese believe is their country's ages-old claim on
the rocky outcrops, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Taiwan also
claims them.
China's move is a way for it to underscore its claim, but
will have little real impact. The UN commission to which it submitted its
claim, which comprises geological experts, evaluates the markers on technical
grounds but has no authority to resolve overlapping claims.
The UN submission represents one aspect of China's
approach to the dispute. Another involves dispatching vessels to patrol in the
area and confront Japanese Coast Guard ships.
On Thursday, China for the first time dispatched a plane
over the islands, prompting Tokyo to accuse it of violating Japanese air space.
Japan's defence agency said four Japanese F-15 jets
headed to the area in response, but the non-military Chinese plane was nowhere
to be seen by the time they got there.
The Foreign Ministry said a formal protest was sent to
the Chinese government through its embassy in Japan.
The islands lie in a strategic location between Japan and
Taiwan, and the surrounding waters hold rich fish stocks and a potential wealth
of oil, gas and other minerals.
The area China claims overlaps with Japan's exclusive
economic zone and includes undersea natural gas deposits that China at one time
had pledged to tap jointly with Japan. Such joint measures have since been
shelved by Beijing.
- AP
