FM: Japan stole Diaoyu Islands

China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi dismissed Japan's recent "private purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands as having grossly violated China's sovereignty and described the act as posing "a grave challenge to the post-war international order and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi of China addresses General Assembly.[UN]

"The moves taken by Japan are totally illegal and invalid," he said at the general debate of the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly, referring to the current island dispute between the two Asian neighbors. "They can in no way change the historical fact that Japan stole Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands from China and the fact that China has territorial sovereignty over them."

 "This is an outright denial of the outcomes of the victory of the world anti-fascist war and poses a grave challenge to the post-war international order and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations," he said. 

"The Chinese government is firm in upholding China's territorial sovereignty," he added.

"China strongly urges Japan to immediately stop all activities that violate China's territorial sovereignty, take concrete actions to correct its mistakes, and return to the track of resolving the dispute through negotiation," Yang said.

"Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands have been an integral part of China's territory since ancient times," he said. "China has indisputable historical and legal evidence in this regard."

According to him, Japan seized these islands in 1895 at the end of the Sino-Japanese War and forced the then Chinese government to sign an unequal treaty to cede these islands and other Chinese territories.

After the Second World War, the Diaoyu Islands and other Chinese territories occupied by Japan were returned to China in accordance with the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and other international documents, he said.