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Japan has confirmed new construction work by China that is suspected to be for gas field exploration, in a contested area of the East China Sea for the second time in about a month.
The Foreign Ministry said it has lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, after the Maritime Self-Defense Force found Chinese ships transporting what would be the “foundation” of a new structure on the west side of a Tokyo-proposed median line separating the countries’ exclusive economic zones in the sea.
On May 20, Japan said it confirmed another ongoing construction by China in nearby waters. Including the latest one, Tokyo has been aware of 18 structures developed by Beijing on the Chinese side of the median line in the sea, according to the ministry.
At a time when the EEZ and the continental shelf have not yet been delineated, it is “extremely regrettable that China is advancing unilateral development in the sea area despite Japan’s repeated protests,” the ministry said.
Japan and China agreed on joint gas development in the area in 2008, but negotiations were suspended in 2010, when tensions between them increased following a Chinese trawler’s collision with a Japan Coast Guard vessel.
Japan regards the median line as the demarcation line between the two neighbors under domestic law, but China says its EEZ extends much further.
Tokyo fears Beijing’s unilateral development in the area may lead to the siphoning off of resources from beneath the Japanese side of the line.
In the East China Sea, Chinese vessels have repeatedly intruded into waters near the Senkaku Islands in recent years. The Senkakus are a group of Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed uninhabited islets that China calls Diaoyu.
