Diaoyu islands manuscript sells for US$2 million

A hand-written document believed to be of a missing part of a Chinese literary work which showed the Diaoyu Islands as being part of China, was auctioned for 13.25 million yuan (2 million U.S.dollars) in Beijing in December 2010.

The item was hand-written by Qian Meixi, a calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is believed to be a copy of the fifth chapter of "The Six Chapters of a Floating Life" of Shen Fu, a writer and painter also from the Qing Dynasty.

However, the book's final two chapters, the writer's autobiographical narrative, were missing.

The document recorded Shen Fu's trip to the Diaoyu Islands and the Ryukyu Islands in 1808. It included a section saying the Diaoyu Islands were part of China. Japan, however, has said it had first discovered the islands in 1884.

The buyer, surnamed Wu, left immediately after the auction. "It was a very quick decision," he told Xinhua by telephone. "I believed this is a very valuable document and I just don't want it to fall into the hands of others, particularly foreigners."

Since the document concerns China's territorial sovereignty, the auction rejected bids from foreigners, as per legal requirements.

Peng Ling, a book vendor from Pingyao in the northern Shanxi province, originally bought the hand-written scripts at an antique market in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu province, in the autumn of 2005.

Peng said he rejected an offer made by a Japanese citizen to buy the scripts for 10 million yuan in December 2009.

"I'm a descendant of the Chinese nation. The Japanese can't take it away, even with 100 million yuan," he said. "The scripts must stay in China."

Japan and China have a longstanding dispute over the ownership of the Diaoyu islands (known as Senkaku islands in Japan).

Source: Xinhua

For more information on the East China Sea dispute, see the Menas Borders website, here.

China, Japan hold treaty talks on gas exploration rights in the East China Sea

Japan and China held the first round of talks in Tokyo on 27th July aimed at signing a treaty over joint gas field development in the East China Sea. The two sides had agreed to hold gas treaty talks when officials met in Hanoi last week as part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings.

Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Ocean Affairs Bureau, and Ning Fukui, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Boundary and Ocean Affairs Department, attended the meeting to discuss the treaty, which is expected to reflect a 2008 bilateral accord.

The accord was designed to resolve a row over gas exploration, and the two countries agreed to drill jointly for oil and gas in the north of the East China Sea. The two countries agreed to jointly tap an area near the gas field known as Longjing in China and Asunaro in Japan; Japan would also invest in the development of the Shirakaba gas field, known as Chunxiao in China.

Talks between the two nations since the June 2008 agreement have been stalled however, with Japan accusing China of beginning unilateral operations of the Chinese side of the median line.

The dispute over ownership of the area originated when it was discovered that part of an undersea natural gas field lay within the Chinese Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), but part of it lay within a disputed EEZ between Japan and China.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China claims the disputed ocean territory as its own EEZ, due to it being part of the PRC’s natural extension of its continental shelf. Japan, however, claims the disputed territory because it is within 200 nautical miles of Japan’s coast.

The Chunxiao gas field established by China in 2003 is clearly within the Chinese side of the EEZ boundary, but Japan argues that they may tap into a field that stretches into the disputed area.

The 2008 agreement was meant to settle the dispute, and the renewed talks appear to be a positive sign. Additionally, in Hanoi, both states’ foreign ministers expressed their satisfaction at the state of China-Japan relations.

Sources: The Mainichi Daily News, Zee News

For the full text of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, please see the menas borders eLibrary