China's new website features displays legal documents, maps, and a timeline dating back to 1403, the year Beijing claims the islands' Mandarin name first appeared in writings<\/p>\n
SENKAKU. A file picture dated 27 April 2005 shows an aerial view of Uotsuri Island, one of the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. Hiroya Shimoji\/EPA <\/p>\n
BEIJING, China Beijing on Tuesday, December 30, launched a website for an uninhabited island chain in the East China Sea, in its latest bid to assert sovereignty over an archipelago controlled by Japan. <\/p>\n
The new website, http:\/\/www.diaoyudao.org.cn<\/a>, was unveiled by China's National Marine Data and Information Service. <\/p>\n Featuring a Chinese flag on its front page, the site displays legal documents, maps and a timeline dating back to 1403, the year Beijing claims the islands' Mandarin name first appeared in writings. <\/p>\n The documents on the website \"provide strong evidence, from both a historical and legal perspective, that the Diaoyu Islands are China's inherent territory since ancient times,\" the official Xinhua news agency wrote. <\/p>\n It added that the site, which is currently available only in Chinese, will soon be launched in at least seven other languages, including Japanese. <\/p>\n Beijing and Tokyo have been engaged in a bitter and longstanding battle over ownership of the island chain, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. <\/p>\n The dispute was exacerbated when Japan nationalized some of the archipelago nearly two years ago, and the sea and air around the contested isles have seen increasingly dangerous standoffs since then. <\/p>\n Tokyo sought to further its claim to the territory in August by naming five of the islands, an act decried by Beijing as \"illegal and invalid\". <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Go here to see the original:<\/p>\n China launches cyber claim to islands in Japan dispute<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China's new website features displays legal documents, maps, and a timeline dating back to 1403, the year Beijing claims the islands' Mandarin name first appeared in writings SENKAKU. A file picture dated 27 April 2005 shows an aerial view of Uotsuri Island, one of the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea Continue reading