China's countermeasures on Diaoyu Islands

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said Friday that a series of countermeasures released in recent days by the Chinese government are an effective way to uphold and strengthen China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets.

Le made the remarks when addressing a seminar on the Diaoyu Islands at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

He said China has published the base points and baselines of the territorial sea of the islands in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone.

"This is in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," said Le.

China's permanent representative to the United Nations Li Baodong met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday (local time) and filed a copy of the table of coordinates and charts of the baseline relating to the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets, said the assistant foreign minister.

Delimiting base points and baselines of the territorial sea is a prerequisite to setting a country's jurisdictional waters, Le explained.

"By doing so, we can set the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in accordance with the UNCLOS, which provides clearer jurisprudential evidence for us to safeguard our sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands and its jurisdiction of the waters surrounding them," said Le.

Earlier Friday, two Chinese surveillance ship fleets arrived at waters around the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets, Le confirmed.

"This is another powerful measure to safeguard our territorial sovereignty," said Le.

According to the assistant foreign minister, the Chinese government will soon standardize the surveillance and monitoring of the Diaoyu Islands and has already provided weather forecasting and maritime environment forecasting for the islands and surrounding waters.

"All these are proclamation of China's sovereignty," said Le, adding that the Chinese government "will take tit-for-tat measures to protect our territory as the situation develops."