Asia's first cylindrical floating oil-gas production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) facility, "Haikui No. 1," is poised to begin its inaugural crude oil transfer operation at the Liuhua Oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth Basin of South China Sea after over 10 days of production activities.
The complex maneuver of connecting two floating vessels at sea requires advanced technology and meticulous planning, especially considering the stringent safety, stability, and flexibility requirements for oil tankers.
"The Liuhua Oilfield experiences frequent winter monsoons and summer internal waves. To adapt to conventional oil tanker operations, 'Haikui No. 1' has two innovatively designed offloading mouths in the northeast and southwest, based on the prevailing wind direction in the area. This allows for year-round offloading operation efficiency of over 90 percent," said Xue Ting, offloading supervisor for Haikui No. 1 of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
According to the captain of the "Beihai Kaituo," the tanker features multiple operational modes. When oil is transferred from "Haikui No. 1" to the tanker, the "Beihai Kaituo" is capable of effectively controlling its bow direction and performing lifting operations autonomously, said the captain, adding that the design significantly reduces operational risks compared to conventional vessels of this type, especially in extreme weather conditions, enhancing safety and increasing loading efficiency, with a single journey capable of transporting up to 450,000 barrels of crude oil.
Zhu Xiaoheng, general manager of CNOOC International Beihai Shipping, emphasized the significance of this development.
"The 'Beihai Kaituo' tanker represents a significant innovation in its adaption to the cylindrical FPSO capabilities, playing a crucial role in the efficient development of the country's deep-water oil and gas fields," he said.
China's cylindrical floating oil-gas facility poised to begin inaugural crude oil transfer
Eighteen sets of precious archival materials related to David Nelson Sutton, a U.S. assistant prosecutor at the Tokyo Trials and one of the earliest international prosecutors to investigate the Nanjing Massacre, were officially donated on Wednesday to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
Sunday marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE, also known as the Tokyo Trials). To commemorate the milestone, six diaries written by Sutton between 1946 and 1948, when he was conducting investigations for the tribunal, were donated together with a series of reports titled Reports from China.
"It is necessary to let more Chinese, even people all over the world, to see these archival materials. Let all the world know why the Tokyo Trials 80 years ago were described as a trial of justice, and how the Nanjing Massacre nearly 90 years ago was unprecedentedly brutal and tragic beyond compare," said Zou Dehuai, the donor.
From May 3, 1946 to Nov 12, 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was held in Tokyo by 11 countries, including the United States, China, Britain and the Soviet Union, to try Japan's Class-A war criminals after World War II.
"Why do we say the Tokyo Trials were a trial of justice? It was a trial witnessed by the world, with judges from 11 countries. Major war criminals, such as Iwane Matsui, a crime culprit for the Nanjing Massacre, and Hideki Tojo, all ultimately received the punishment they deserved. That is why the Tokyo Trials are called a trial of justice. These archives are of immense importance," Zou said.
Sutton came to China with the International Prosecution Section in 1946 and was tasked with investigating Japanese war crimes in China, with a particular focus on collecting evidence related to the Nanjing Massacre.
The six diaries recorded many details of Sutton's work during the Tokyo Trials. In one entry, dated March 9, he wrote that he had received formal orders to go to Shanghai, Nanking (Nanjing), Peiping (Beijing) and other sites in the China theater to investigate war crimes and gather evidence. Another entry recorded his arrival in Nanjing at 11:20 on April 2. On May 3, the day the trial opened, he described the defendants as looking like "insignificant beaten men."
The donated materials also include Sutton's "Reports from China," which further exposed Japanese wartime atrocities in China, including mass killings, violence against civilians, germ warfare and the coercion of Chinese people into opium cultivation.
Zou is a collector born in the 1990s who has long searched for wartime historical evidence. He first found the Sutton materials in November 2025 on a U.S.-based auction website specialized in military artifacts. After confirming Sutton's identity and reviewing preview images that indicated the items were original archival materials, Zou placed a bid for the collection and later, ultimately paying a price nearly 100,000 U.S. dollars, far more than his original budget. And he arranged for its return to China, with assistance from others.
At the donation ceremony, Zou received a donation certificate. He said the Sutton archives were the most expensive items he had acquired in a decade of collecting. "These archives, these ironclad evidences, expose the crimes committed by the invading Japanese army in China and serve as a warning to all humanity. When you look at these documents, you cannot imagine that a human army could commit such massive and horrible atrocities. I believe that any Japanese person with conscience, after reading the Sutton archives, would firmly recognize what kind of a massacre took place in Nanjing. For the young people of future China, Japan and the United States, we must tell them the truth of history, and why we must cherish the hard-won peace, and how heavy the cost of peace truly was," Zou said.
Tokyo Trials prosecutor's diaries donated to Nanjing Massacre memorial hall
