Published: Jan. 16, 2013 at 6:09 AM<\/p>\n
BEIJING, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- China said it will survey the disputed Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea to \"safeguard China's marine rights,\" a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. <\/p>\n
The survey of the islands -- known as the Senkaku Islands by Japan which administers them -- will be part of a larger project of island and reef mapping started in 2009, spokesman Hong Lei told reporters, a state-run Xinhua news agency report said. <\/p>\n
\"Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets have been the inherent territory of China since ancient times,\" said Hong. <\/p>\n
The National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation has completed mapping of islands within 60 miles of China's coastline and will start on territories further afield which include the Diaoyu, also claimed by Taiwan. <\/p>\n
China has maintained the Diaoyu, which lie around 100 miles north of Japan's Ishigaki Island and 116 miles northeast of Taiwan, are its territory since international treaties in the late 1800s. <\/p>\n
At the end of World War II in 1945 the islands were under U.S. jurisdiction as part of the captured Japanese island of Okinawa. Japan has administered them since 1972 when Okinawa was returned to Japan. <\/p>\n
Tensions flared between Beijing and Tokyo in September after the Japanese government bought three of the islands from a private Japanese owner, triggering public protests in Chinese cities. <\/p>\n
Since then China has stepped up naval incursions and patrols around the islands for which Japan has lodged formal diplomatic complaints. <\/p>\n
Hong also said that China and Japan continue to discuss at various diplomatic levels and through informal channels possible settlements to settle the dispute. <\/p>\n
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China to survey disputed Diaoyu Islands<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published: Jan. 16, 2013 at 6:09 AM BEIJING, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- China said it will survey the disputed Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea to \"safeguard China's marine rights,\" a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Continue reading