EDITORIAL: China should honor gas development deal with Japan

Asahi Shimbun ^ | 07/07/2013 | Asahi Shimbun

[TexGrill]

It has been revealed that China has started building facilities for developing a new gas field near the Japan-China median line in the East China Sea.

This action contravenes an agreement between the Japanese and Chinese governments to “realize joint (gas) development as soon as possible,” reached in June 2008. China should immediately halt the work to develop the new gas field.

That is because a boundary dispute still exists between the two countries over their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the East China Sea.

While Japan argues for the establishment of an EEZ halfway between the two coastlines, China insists on an EEZ based on its extended continental shelf, which extends beyond the median line eastward into the Japanese side.

But China has been developing gas fields only in areas in the Chinese side of the median line set by Japan. The site of China’s new gas development is closer to the Chinese mainland than the other gas fields the country is developing in the region. Beijing apparently thinks the area completely falls under China’s jurisdiction, and the project should raise no diplomatic issues.

But the median line Japan has been citing in the dispute is nothing but a provisional maritime demarcation line designed to show only the minimum range of Japan’s territorial claim in the region. Japan believes it has, at the very least, exclusive rights over marine resources located on its side of that line.

Tokyo has not abandoned its rights over areas on the Chinese side of the median line.

[TexGrill]

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