China has set up a new drilling facility for gas fields in a contested area of the East China Sea, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Monday, despite Tokyo's repeated calls on Beijing to halt its unilateral resource development program there.
The facility is located on the Chinese side of a Tokyo-proposed median line separating the countries' exclusive economic zones in the sea, the ministry said, adding it has lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.
Japan and China agreed on joint gas development in the area in 2008, but negotiations were suspended in 2010 when tensions between them increased following a Chinese trawler's collision with a Japan Coast Guard vessel.
Japan regards the median line as the demarcation line between the two neighbors under domestic law, but China says its EEZ extends much further.
Tokyo fears Beijing's unilateral development in the area may lead to the siphoning off of resources from beneath the Japanese side of the line.
Last Friday, the Japanese ministry said the Maritime Self-Defense Force found Chinese ships transporting what would be the "foundation" of another structure by Beijing on the Chinese side of the median line.
Japan has been aware of 18 such Chinese structures in the area.