China has criticized the Japanese government for ignoring its solemn representations, and announcing the purchase of part of China’s Diaoyu Islands from its self-proclaimed owner.
A Foreign Ministry statement says Japan’s decision wantonly violates China’s sovereignty. It hurts the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese people, and tramples on historical facts and international law. China and its people strongly oppose the decision.
The Diaoyu Islands and surrounding islets have been the inherent territory of China since ancient times, and were first discovered, named and used by the Chinese. The earliest historical record of the Diaoyu Islands dates back to China’s Ming Dynasty. The Diaoyu Islands have never been unpossessed territory. China is the undebatable owner of the Diaoyu Islands.
China always attaches great importance to the development of Sino-Japanese relations. China and Japan as well as the peoples of the two countries can only co-exist in a peaceful and friendly manner, instead of confronting each other.
The promotion of Sino-Japanese strategic and reciprocal relations is in line with the basic interests of the two countries and their peoples and conducive to maintaining the overall peace, stability and development of the region.
But the healthy and stable development of Sino-Japanese relations requires that Japan act with China collaboratively and make concerted efforts. The Japanese government’s attempt to purchase the islands runs against the stability of bilateral relations.
The Chinese government solemnly announces that the attempt to purchase the islands is absolutely illegal and invalid. It can never change the historical facts of Japan’s aggression and occupation of Chinese territory and China’s sovereignty on the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets. The time that the Chinese nation succumbed to the manipulation of external forces has gone forever.
The Chinese government will never allow its territorial sovereignty to be challenged. China strongly urges Japan to immediately stop any actions that harm China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
It should return to the consensus and mutual understanding reached by the two sides without any reservation and return to resolving disputes through negotiations. Japan will be fully responsible for any serious consequences caused by its unilateral action.
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