China mulls Diaoyu Islands mapping

According to a document issued in a press conference by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, the first stage of the island surveying and mapping was launched in 2009 and has finished the monitoring of islands located within 100 km of the coastline, Xinhua reported.

The second stage will cover islands including the Diaoyu Islands, the document said, adding that this programme is part of China's efforts to safeguard its maritime rights and interests.

China, as of the end of 2012, had completed the identifying and precise positioning of about 6,400 islands and more than 4,900 island maps of three different scales.

The islands are called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. The row over the islands, which are presently controlled by Japan, has left ties between Tokyo and Beijing highly tense, BBC reported.

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