China to launch survey on territorial islands

A national survey on the resources of China's territorial islands will be launched this year, according to a national conference on maritime affairs Thursday. The survey will determine unspecified base points and baselines of the country's territorial waters around the islands, a circular issued at the conference said. It will also monitor the geological features of the country's important islands, including the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands in the South China Sea, the circular said. The distribution, quantity and quality of the islands' resources and the development potentials of such resources, as well as the islands' major environmental and ecological conditions will also be investigated in the survey, the document said. The survey will start in the first half of the year and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016, the circular added.