The sovereign rights of Chunxiao oil and gas field in the East China Sea belong to China, said Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei in Beijing on Thursday.

The cooperative development of the Chunxiao oil and gas field between Chinese and Japanese enterprises is different from the "joint development " of the East China Sea, Wu told a press briefing.

According to the China-Japan principled consensus on the East China Sea issue, Chinese enterprises welcome the participation of Japanese legal person in the development of the existing oil and gas field in Chunxiao in accordance with the relevant laws of China governing cooperation with foreign enterprises in the exploration and exploitation of offshore petroleum resources.

The development of Chunxiao oil and gas field must be conducted in accordance with the Chinese law, Wu said, adding this is the biggest difference from joint development.

"This indicates that the sovereign rights of Chunxiao oil and gas field belong to China," Wu noted.

There are many cases of cooperative development in the international community. Foreign companies in China's coastal areas and Chinese companies in other nations have conducted cooperative development in the same way as in Chunxiao, Wu said.

Relevant Chinese oil companies had cooperated previously with foreign oil companies such as Unocal Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Group in Chunxiao. The two companies quitted the cooperation for business reasons, Wu said, noting that the nature of the participation of Japanese legal person in the Chunxiao development is exactly the same as that of Unocal and Shell.

Wu said Japan's agreement on participating in the development of the existing oil and gas field in Chunxiao in accordance with the relevant laws of China and Japan's acknowledge of China's sovereign rights over Chunxiao is one of the important precondition of the consensus between China and Japan on the East China Sea issue.

According to Wu, another precondition is that the consensus would not damage China's sovereignty and jurisdiction in the East China Sea, and would not damage China's legal stances over the East China Sea issue.