China ships sail in waters near disputed islands
If you look at the map at the end, you'll see that Chunxiao gas field is far out in the sea, nearer to Ryukyu islands than to Shanghai. It is another sign of Chinese greed and aggression, right?
Well, the location of the gas field on that map is pure bullshit. Many people here probably don't know that the Chinese and Japanese not only have dispute for the islands, but also the delimitation of the EEZs in East China Sea. The Japanese are in favor of the so call middle line. In other words, you draw a line in the middle of East China Sea, about equal distance from the east coast line of China and the western edge of the Ryukyu islands chain. However, there is no reason a chain of rocks and islands should grant the same extent of EEZ as a continent. The Chinese are more in favor of the continental shell theory, which grants most of the continental shells to the land country.
What does this have to do with the gas field? No matter which EEZ theory are more justified, the ground situation is that the Japanese claim is the rule at the moment. Well, they used to have the bigger guns in the whole last century.
So the Chunxiao gas field is on the Chinese side of the middle line . There is no way it is on the edge of the continental shell, as shown on the BBC map.