Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, read the Records of the Imperial Title-conferring Envoys to Ryukyu (Shi Liu Qiu Lu) written in 1534 by Chen Kan, an imperial title-conferring envoy from the Ming court, while visiting the China National Archives of Publications and Culture's Xi'an Branch Archives on Saturday afternoon.

"This ancient text has proved that the Diaoyu Islands do not belong to Ryukyu," he said.