China says Japan 'stole' isles, in verbal war at U.N.
News On Japan via Mainichi -- Sep 28

China accused Japan on Thursday of stealing a cluster of islands in the East China Sea and "grossly" violating Chinese sovereignty in the process, as part of verbal war that top officials from both countries engaged in at a U.N. session.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that by unilaterally nationalizing the disputed islands earlier this month, the Japanese government has also posed "a grave challenge to the postwar international order."

Claiming the islands have been part of Chinese territory since "ancient times," Yang said, "Japan stole Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands from China" in 1895 at the end of the Sino-Japanese War.

He said Japan "forced the then Chinese government to sign an unequal treaty to cede these islands and other Chinese territories to Japan." But after its defeat in World War II, it was obligated by international treaties to return them to China, he added.

Source: Mainichi



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