China voiced "serious concern" yesterday about the Japanese government's plan to grant test-drilling rights in a gas field in the East China Sea to private oil companies.
Acknowledging that China and Japan have conflicting territorial claims in the sea, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the issue "should be solved properly by negotiation."
Japan yesterday approved a request by Teikoku Oil Co to drill for natural gas in the East China Sea in a disputed border region.
Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Tokyo will allow test drilling under a two-year permit that can be extended for a total eight years.
Tokyo-based Teikoku Oil has said it wants to drill test wells in three areas spanning 400 square kilometers.
Liu strongly urged Japan to avoid any action that might impair stability in the East China Sea and affect Sino-Japanese relations.
"If Japan is bent on doing such things, it will constitute grave damage to China's rights of sovereignty and make the situation in the East China Sea more complicated," the spokesman said.
Liu also criticized the Japanese government yesterday for a city's plans to use a textbook that whitewashes Japan's war history.
The eastern Japanese city of Otawara decided on Tuesday to pass out a history textbook compiled by a right-wing group to 12 junior high schools.
The text "weakens and evades the political and moral responsibility Japan should take for its aggression," Liu said at his regular news briefing.
"It even tries in vain to overturn its history of aggression," he said.
The textbook denies Japan's militaristic past and its army's atrocities against Asia's people, and mischaracterizes Japan's aggression as "a war liberating Asia," Liu said.
"The use of this kind of textbook in classrooms cannot but mislead and poison Japanese students. The Japanese government must not shirk its responsibility in this," he said.