Law of the Sea

Chinese Government launched a media blitz to defend the deal with Japan over oil and gas fields on the East China Sea. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi repeated the Government's position that China's sovereign rights and legal position were not compromised. A vice-president of China National Offshore Oil Corp gave a lecture on the differences between the co-operative development in the Chunxiao field and the joint development in the designated block. He suggested that Japanese companies participating in the cooperative development should pay tax to China, to which a Japanese official replied that Japanese investors would have to pay Chinese tax in theory, but any details would have to be sorted out by the parties.