BEIJING, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- China and Japan plan to hold a 10th round of talks on the energy-rich East China Sea, which both claim.
Jiang Yu, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Tuesday talks will be held later this month in Beijing, but that no date had been set, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
"We hope Japan would make joint effort with China," she said.
Earlier this month, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said talks would be held Sept. 21 in Beijing.
Japan says the Chunxiao field, which is located some 2 kilometers inside China's claimed side, is the median line separating the two countries' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea. China does not recognize that median line.
The two sides failed to reach an agreement on the demarcation of their respective exclusive economic zones, an area that allows under international law coastal countries to control maritime resources up to 200 nautical miles offshore. But the area between Japan and China is not enough to give the two countries such zones: The width of much of the East China Sea is less than 400 nautical miles.
Japan says it fears China might siphon off resources that could be buried under the seabed on the Japanese side of the median line.
