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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Japan riskeert woede China vanwege gasexploraties



Spoetnik
13-04-05, 13:44
Japan has begun allocating gas exploration rights in an area of the East China Sea also claimed by China.

The move is likely to anger Beijing, at a time when tensions between the two nations are already rising.

Violent protests took place in China at the weekend against Japan's approval of history textbooks, which critics say play down its wartime brutality.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura is travelling to Beijing on Saturday to try to resolve the row.

According to a BBC correspondent in Beijing, Louisa Lim, the rivalry between the two countries as they jostle for supremacy in Asia is at the heart of the tensions.

In a statement on Wednesday, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it would begin reviewing applications from companies that wanted to explore the disputed gas fields.

Government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda insisted the timing of the decision had nothing to do with the escalating row between Beijing and Tokyo.

"It just happened that awarding exploration rights began today," Mr Hosoda told reporters.

Japanese companies have been waiting for 40 years to be given the go-ahead to drill in what it sees as its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which has a potentially vast reserve of natural gas and oil.

Both China and Japan are heavily dependent on imported energy, and both are seeking new sources of energy to power their economies.

In recent years China has conducted surveys of the disputed area, and has refused Japanese requests to stop or provide details of its research.

Now it is China's turn to be annoyed. Japan's decision to allocate drilling rights in the region comes just one day after Beijing warned Tokyo against precisely such a course of action.

In the past Beijing has made it plain that the East China Sea dispute is an important one, characterising it as one of the main bilateral sticking points with Tokyo.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4439171.stm