China urges Japan not to meddle in gas development in East China Sea

""contested area of the sea""

Since it is a "contested" area then Japan should do or should have been doing the drilling, why wait until China starts first??

Set up our own rig and start drilling.

Perhaps Japan should follow the Chinese playbook and send ships to blockade and arrest them for illegal activities?

With its constant provocations, China is begging to be slapped down. Japan needs to get a drill rig on site within the week.

My crystal ball tells me to look forward to another BP level disaster.

Yes, naturally, but it's o.k. for THEM, to do whatever they want ..like ramming Vietnamese fishing boats while THEY STEAL OIL from the ocean bottom of Vietnamese waters.

When China urges a country not to meddle in something, that country should definitely meddle.

The new drilling facility is located on the Chinese side of a Tokyo-proposed median line separating the two countries'

That mean that Japan recognize this area as a Chinese area even if this is only a proposed demarcation line no ?

Why a Japanese company with the approval of the government don't do the same thing on the Japanese side of this line ?

Why a Japanese company with the approval of the government don't do the same thing on the Japanese side of this line ?

very simple answer, If Japan do the same thing China's response will be to exploit oil on a large scale without any hesitation , which will far exceed Japan's ability and scale of exploitation. In fact, no country in the world can surpass China in terms of large-scale exploitation

Japan isn't capable or responsible enough to do anything about the issue anyway .

Sorry to say .

no country in the world can surpass China in terms of large-scale exploitation

Now there is a ringing condemnation!

China, exploitative, destructive, imperialistic, uncaring, utterly self centred and an ongoing environmental disaster without an iota of care for its own people or anyone else!

China lying again to steal from others. Clearly the area is contested but China ignores others concerns and that is the red light for all nations. China does what it likes then lies to the world in attempts to justify it's actions, in the face of other nations concerns. If all nations were so arrogant the world would be a much worse place than it has descended to during the reign of Xi and Putin.

Japan must stand up for itself in the face of Chinese actions or forever be on the back foot wondering what it should be doing. Unfortunately a managed confrontation over this issue is required with members of International world bodies invited to witness everything that happens in person for themselves. That makes it much more difficult for China to lie about it and to manage the situation in it's own favor.

Aw Xi The Pooh all upset and his widdle feewings hurting from the world saying "Hey XI f...."

Japan urges china to GET LOST!

Start drilling in Senkaku then.

China is lying again

China does what China does best, bully its way, buy its way, con its way, trample its way to its innate urges. If you don't push back against China (and make them own their nefarious urges) then it's your own fault when your own backyard becomes a mess.

Japan's whimpering of quasi supremacy isn't going to stop the agreement they made with China

In 2008, Beijing and Tokyo agreed on joint gas development in the area

Work together, you can do great things !!..

Work together, you can do great things !!..

There is no such thing as working together with China. Every relationship China has with the outside world is exploitive. The whole One Belt One Road project is a debt trap for participating nations and way for China to take control. The only thing China understands is raw force. Japan must use their JMSDF to challenge Chinese drilling in disputed waters and stop it. Better yet the Diet should authorized the Japan Coast Guard to shoot in certain situation and have them handle it, with the JMSDF and JASDF backing them up from a distance. Call it a law enforcement operation, threaten to board and search the exploration ship if it doesn't leave. Play the same game the Chinese do.

Japan must use their JMSDF to challenge Chinese drilling in disputed waters and stop it. 

The Japanese Ministry of defense dare not even complain about the Chinese and Russian warships cruising in the waters near Japan recently. How do you think they dare attack the Chinese facilities located on the Chinese side of the so called median line proposed by Tokyo?

It's internationally recognized that primary right to economic activities on a continental shelf is given to the relevant littoral country. So, what Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin's claim may be correct.

Personally, I have a little doubt about it, though. For, geographically speaking, a continental shelf is an extension of the whole continent, not just the extension of the littoral country concerned. So much so that the international accord must be revisited and revised.

It's internationally recognized that primary right to economic activities on a continental shelf is given to the relevant littoral country. So, what Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin's claim may be correct.

However under international law when two nations coasts are so close their EEZs overlap the boundary between the two nation's EEZs is generally drawn to divide the distance between the two nations equally.

Desert Tortoise,

Such problems will disappear if continental shelf were designated as no one's economic activity zone.

Such problems will disappear if continental shelf were designated as no one's economic activity zone.

So you are saying coastal nations should have no control over local fisheries or mineral extraction off their immediate coast lines? Some other country can plant big oil platforms just outside the 12 nautical mile territorial limit? No limit on foreign fishing fleets depleting local fisheries and leaving your local fishing fleet with nothing to catch? There is a long list of good reasons to have EEZs.

Desert Tortoise,

So you are saying coastal nations should have no control over local fisheries or mineral extraction off their immediate coast lines?

Under the current international agreement on continental shelves, littoral countries only have right to extract mineral resources reserved in continental shelves. However, my suggestion is: revisit that agreement and revise it, if necessary, for continental shelves belong to not just the littoral country in question but also the whole continent and so all relevant countries.

Note that I am talking only about a country's right to economic activities on a continental shelf and not about EEZ.