China has legal right to gas field in East China Sea - FM

BEIJING, March 10 (Itar-Tass) - China enjoys a legal right to the
development of an oil and gas field in the East China Sea that is linked to the territorial dispute with Japan, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Thursday.
"The Chunxiao field is not a disputed area, it is located in the
waters under China's jurisdiction," the diplomat said. "China has a
sovereign right to develop the Chunxiao field and China's actions in the region are justified and legal."
On Wednesday, Japan's newspapers reported quoting an official from
China National Offshore Oil Corp that China started drilling in the gas field. Tokyo has already expressed its protest as it considers that Beijing's actions violate a deal on gas development in the East China Sea that the two countries sealed back in 2008.
China and Japan have been failing to come to agreement on the
development of oil and gas fields and maritime delimitation in the East China Sea for many years.
China rejects Japan's proposal for the median line demarcation and has always claimed a continental shelf as far as Japan's Okinawa Island.