A military delegation led by high-ranking People's Liberation Army (PLA) officer Cai Yingting reiterated China's indisputable sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands during meetings in Washington with senior US military and government officials over the weekend.

Cai, deputy chief of the General Staff of the PLA, said China was opposed to any application of the US-Japan security treaty to the islands.

He was referring to the US stance, according to which the Diaoyu Islands fall within the scope of the 1960 US-Japan treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, under which the US will provide assistance to Japan when its territory comes under armed attack.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that Cai emphasized the islands and their affiliated islets are part of China's inherent territory, and all recent illegal activities by the Japanese, including the bid to "purchase" the island and the activists' landing there, were invalid.

The military dialogue between the US and China took place while Eriko Yamatani, a right-wing lawmaker of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, filed a petition to land on the islands by 2013.

Yamatani was among 150 Japanese activists who landed on the islands on August 19, claiming they were mourning for the victims of a boat accident off the island in the 1940s.

The action reignited territorial disputes between the two countries, days after a group of 14 Chinese nationals were detained by Japan after landing on the islands on August 15 to claim China's sovereignty over the territory.

The 14 Chinese were sent back to Hong Kong by Japanese authorities on August 17.

Global Times - Xinhua