Japan posts photos of Chinese offshore platforms close to disputed waters in East China Sea

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Japan's photo of a Chinese oil platform. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 2:45am, 23 Jul 2015Updated: 8:24pm, 23 Jul 2015

Japan has released photos of Chinese offshore platforms to protest what it calls China's unilateral development of natural gas fields in the East China Sea.

The 14 photos were posted yesterday on the Japnese foreign ministry's website, a day after Tokyo, in its annual defence paper, slammed Beijing's bid to reclaim land in the South China Sea as a "coercive attempt" to force sweeping maritime claims.

The disclosure also came after the passage of security bills to extend the role of Japan's military to allow it to defend other countries - a move China said risked unsettling regional security.

Relations between Asia's two largest economies are thawing, even as they are locked in a dispute over ownership of a group of uninhabited islands.

"It is extremely deplorable that China is unilaterally developing resources while the border has not been settled," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

This June 2015 photo provided by Defense Ministry through the Japanese Foreign Ministry Homepage shows a Chinese offshore platform in the East China Sea.

The platforms have appeared despite a June 2008 agreement in which the two countries said they would jointly develop the area in the wake of friction over who had the rights to exploit the resources. Of the 16, 12 had been installed in the last two years, Japan said.

Some Japanese officials have warned China may use some of the platforms for military purposes, to monitor activities of Japan's Self-Defence Forces and US forces in the East China Sea.