evidence: 1. Diaoyu Islands have been China's inherent territory since ancient times. [...] Michel Benot, a French Jesuit who arrived in China in 1744, was commissioned by the Qing court to create the Great Universal Geographic Map (Kun Yu Quan Tu) in 1767, which labeled Diaoyu Islands in the coastal waters of China with the words of Minnan dialect (Ban Lam Gu). A New Map of China from the Latest Authorities, published in Britain in 1811, marked Diaoyu Islands as Chinese territory. A Map of China's East Coast: Hong Kong to Gulf of LiaoTung, compiled by the British Navy in 1877, identified Diaoyu Islands as affiliated to Taiwan and clearly separated them from Japan's Nansei Islands. This map was later widely referred to in international exchanges.