Japan has joined India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan to lodge protests against China over its new "standard map" for including the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea as part of its territory.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told the media in Tokyo on Tuesday that Japan has lodged a strong protest to China through diplomatic channels over a new map released by Beijing last month, PTI reported.
Tokyo urged Beijing to rescind the map because it has a description based on China's unilateral claims on the Senkaku Islands in southern Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, Matsuno has been quoted by the Japanese media, the report said.
It said the map describes the Senkakus as the Diaoyu Islands, the Chinese name for the islands. The Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea are claimed by Beijing.
The islands are "indisputably an inherent part of Japanese territory, both historically and under international law," the report quoted Matsuno as having said.
Japan "responds in a calm and resolute way, based on its policy to stand firm in protecting people's lives and properties, as well as the country's land, seas and airspace," he said, the report mentioned.
Reacting to Japan’s protest, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning rejected Tokyo’s claim over the islands, it mentioned.
Diaoyu Islands and neighbouring islands are part of China’s territories, Mao told a media briefing on Wednesday, the report mentioned.
"It is reasonable for China to include them in our standard maps. We do not accept relevant statements," she was quoted in the report as having said.
Earlier, the Governments in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan joined India in rejecting China's new national map, issuing strongly worded statements accusing Beijing of claiming their territory, the report said.
China published a new version of its national map last week to correct what Beijing has in the past referred to as problematic maps that it claims misrepresent its territorial borders, it mentioned.
India lodged a strong protest with China over its so-called "standard map" laying claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin, and asserted that such steps only complicate the resolution of the boundary question, it added.
The External Affairs Ministry also rejected China's claims as having "no basis", it said.
"Just making absurd claims does not make other people's territories yours," the report quoted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as having said while reacting to the Chinese move.
The Philippine government has also slammed China's 2023 edition of its so-called standard map that still shows swaths of Philippine features in the West Philippine Sea, it mentioned.
The Malaysian government has said that it will send a protest note to China over the latter's claims on the South China Sea as outlined in the China Standard Map Edition 2023', which also covers Malaysia's maritime areas, it said.
