BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- China is calling on US media organizations to be impartial on the issue of the Diaoyu Islands. The call by China’s Foreign Ministry was in response to an article published last week in the Wall Street Journal, which urged the US to endorse Japan’s claim over the islands.

The US government’s official position is to remain neutral in the dispute, a policy that Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei says the US should continue to pursue. Hong says China hopes US media groups will take an objective and impartial stance, and play a more constructive role in easing tensions and resolving the dispute.

He calls the exchange of the Diaoyu Islands between Japan and the US in the 1970s "underhanded", "illegal and invalid", and said nothing changes the fact that the islands are an inherent part of Chinese territory. Hong blames recent tensions on Japan, and its attempts to change the status quo.

(Source: CNTV.cn)