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Beijing to revise ship traffic ban

China has revised its ban on ship traffic around disputed gas fields in the East China Sea to exclude waters on the Japanese side of the contested area, a Japanese government official said yesterday.

Chinese maritime authorities had posted a notice that unauthorized ship traffic would be banned in waters around the Pinghu field from March 1 to Sept. 30.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said the Chinese had changed the order and informed Tokyo overnight, defusing an additional tiff with Japan over an area that the two sides are already feuding over.

China told Japan it would revise it so that it did not go beyond the disputed median line separating the two countries' 200 nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zones, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Abe played down the episode.

"The Chinese side said that there was a technical mistake, so I think that was the case," Abe told reporters. "I had the impression that it was a relatively simple mistake."

But he said Beijing should be sensitive to Japanese claims.

"Even if the revised area of the navigation notice falls on the Chinese side of the median line, China needs to pay appropriate consideration to the rights and duties of other countries," he said.
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