China will enforce the mapping of its offshore islands and reefs in the coming five years to maintain its marine rights and interests, said the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping on Friday.

Director-General of the Bureau Lu Xinshe made the remarks at a press conference held at the Information Office under the State Council.

As the mapping and surveying of offshore islands and reefs was insufficient, the move was a substantial effort to step up the surveying work in the marine area, Lu told Xinhua.

China has 7,372 islands over 500 square meters each and is allowed to claim domination of three million square kilometers according to related international laws, its territorial land amounting to 380,000 kilometers.

Lu also stated at the press conference that the country will establish a public service system in the mapping and surveying sector in the next five years.

China will continue to conduct the 1:50,000 topographic mapping in the country's western area, lifting the coverage of it to 95 percent of the land area in the ensuing five years, according to Lu.

The country plans to launch a high-precision stereo mapping satellite to improve the capability of quick capture of geographic information, said Lu.

A modernized national surveying and mapping reference system will be established across the country, with all the land area to be covered by remotely sensed satellite imagery, said Lu.

China aims to build a network of basic geographic information in the next five years, including platforms for a considerable variety of geographic information, Lu added.

Moreover, the country will work out a new national topographic map at a basic scale and a public edition in the next five years.

Source: Xinhua