Chinese Ambassador to Britain says purchase of Diaoyu Islands is null

China’s Ambassador to Britain has strongly put across his opinion that the purchase of the Diaoyu Islands is invalid. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming was speaking to the British media when he declared that the Japanese government has gone against that Cairo Declaration of November 27, 1943 as well as the terms of the Potsdam Proclamation in the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.

The Cairo Declaration stated that all the territories that Japan had ‘stolen’ from China, this included Manchuria, Taiwan and the Pescadores, should be returned to the Republic of China. Conforming to this declaration, China is the rightful owner of Diaoyu Islands; hence its purchase becomes null and void. Liu further elaborated that historical records too support the theory of Chinese descent.

The islands were a part of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islands were even marked on maps as Chinese territory in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Apparently even the British authorities have supported China’s sovereignty with maps. This includes the “A New Map of China from the Latest Authorities”, which was published in Britain in 1811. The British Navy in 1877 drew up the “A Map of China’s East Coast: Hong Kong to Gulf of Liao-Tung”, and this too marked the Diaoyu Islands as Chinese territory.