A Chinese foreign ministry official summoned a Japanese diplomat in Beijing on Friday to lodge solemn representations to and express "strong protest" against Japanese government's approval of a Japanese oil and gas company's drill request in East China Sea.

Cui Tiankai, director of the Foreign Ministry's Asian Department, told Chihiro Atsumi, minister of the Japanese embassy in China, that such activity is a "severe provocation and violation" against China's sovereignty and interest, which is also against the rules in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Cui said China and Japan have not settled their demarcation in the East China Sea as they have disputes over demarcation there. It is untenable for the Japanese side, employing its unilateral position on the so-called "middle line", to grant test drilling rights to Japanese enterprises in the disputed sea area.

Cui said the Chinese side reiterates clearly that it has never recognized the so-called "middle line" and it will never recognize the line.

He said the sea area to the east of the "middle line" is under dispute, and the Japanese side is not entitled to taking unilateral action in that area.

If the Japanese side attempts to impose its unilateral action as a fact on the Chinese side, the Chinese side will stand firmly opposed to and will never accept it, said Cui.

He said China and Japan should properly handle their disputes and actively explore resolution ways through dialogues and consultations on an equal footing, which is the important consensus reached between leaders of the two countries.

The Chinese side seriously requests the Japanese side, in the above-mentioned spirit, to correct its decision and stop any action that impairs China's sovereign rights and interests, said Cui.

The Chinese Embassy to Japan also lodged solemn representations to the Japanese Foreign Ministry Friday, said sources with the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

China Thursday voiced its "serious concerns" about the Japanese government's plan to grant private oil companies test-drilling rights in a gas field in the East China Sea.

"It is an objective reality that China and Japan have disputes over the demarcation of East China Sea, but this issue should be solved properly by negotiation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference on Thursday.

The Japanese government has granted Teikoku Oil Co. concessions to conduct experimental drilling in the East China Sea near natural gas fields being explored by a Chinese consortium, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Thursday.

The government gave the green light after winning approval from the governors of south Japan's Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures, which have state-designated jurisdiction over the sites.

Liu strongly urged Japan not to take any action that will impair the stability in the East China Sea and Sino-Japanese relations.

"If Japan is bent on doing such things, it will constitute a grave damage to China's rights of sovereignty and make the situation in the East China Sea more complicated," the spokesman said.

On April 28, Teikoku Oil applied for the experimental drilling rights at three sites covering a combined 400 square kilometers in the East China Sea, following the ministry's decision earlier that month to unfreeze concession-granting procedures.

The sites are located just east of what Japan claims is the median line separating the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of Japan and China in the East China Sea.

The oil firm originally applied for exploration rights in the sea area in 1969 and 1970 but the government shelved the applications because of unsettled EEZ demarcation in the sea between Japan and China.

By People's Daily Online