China Daily takes out ads in US newspapers to highlight Diaoyu claims

The tussle between China and Japan over ownership of islands in the East China Sea has spilled over into American newspapers, with the China Daily taking out a double-page ad about the dispute for Friday editions.

A centre spread display in The New York Times - among the most expensive real estate in all of journalism - was devoted to the stand-off, which has heightened tensions between Japan and China and reopened old wounds over the second world war.

"[The] Diaoyu Islands … have been an inherent territory of China since ancient times, and China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands," read the text of the advertisement paid for by the China Daily. The ad pressed Beijing's position that Japan had "grabbed" the islands and that they are the rightful property of China. "China has opposed the backroom deals between the United States" over the islands, read the text of the oversized advertisement in Friday's Washington Post.

Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday touched on the territorial dispute in a speech at a reception ahead of National Day on October 1.

"We will firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wen said.

Beijing has for decades demanded the return of the uninhabited islands - known as the Diaoyus in Chinese and the Senkakus in Japanese. Taiwan also claims the islands.