Senkaku islands issue 2012

The Senkaku islands also known as the Diaoyu Islands, or the Pinnacle Islands, are a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea. They are located roughly due east of mainland China, northeast of Taiwan, west of Okinawa Island, and north of the southwestern end of the Ryukyu Islands.

Japanese visit to disputed islands sparks China protest

Ten Japanese made an unauthorized landing on Uotsuri, the largest in a small archipelago known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands and in China as the Diaoyu Islands. The uninhabited islands surrounded by rich fishing grounds are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. Of the 10 who visited the island, five were conservative local assembly members.

Protests flared up across China after a group of Japanese nationalist activists swam ashore and raised flags on an island also claimed by China, located north of Taiwan.

Chinese took to the streets in protest, overturning Japanese-branded cars and smashing windows at some Japanese-owned businesses, as Beijing lodged a formal complaint, urging Tokyo to prevent frictions from escalating further.

“The Senkakus are undoubtedly Japanese territory. It is to be expected that Japanese would take that to heart,” said Eiji Kosaka, an assemblyman from Tokyo’s Arakawa district.

China’s Foreign Ministry protested, summoning Japan’s ambassador to voice its complaints.

“The Japanese side should properly handle the current issue and avoid seriously damaging the overall situation of China-Japan relations,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

Tokyo rejected a complaint by China’s ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae told that the protests in China were “regrettable” and urged Chinese authorities to ensure the safety of tens of thousands of Japanese citizens there, the ministry said.

Japan’s move

Earlier, a group of 14 Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese travelled by boat to the islands, some swimming ashore. Protesters in Beijing, Hong Kong and other cities praised them as heroes and burned Japanese flags, but Japan arrested the 14 for landing without authorization.

This visit by the Chinese activists raised calls by critics of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government to take stronger action to protect the islands. Some lawmakers are urging that Japan’s military be called on to protect the territory.

Japan says it has controlled the five main islands for more than 100 years. It has been trying to place four that are privately held under state ownership to bolster its territorial claim.

Taiwan’s reaction

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Timothy Yang summoned Japan’s de facto ambassador to Taiwan, Sumio Tarui, on 19.08.2012 to lodge a protest over the visit by the Japanese activists to the islands, which are about 190 kilometres off Taiwan’s northeastern coast.

Yang said the “provocative act” had heightened tensions in the area, according to a ministry statement.

South Korean angle

Frictions have also flared recently over another set of disputed islands controlled by South Korea.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the islands in the Sea of Japan, called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean in August 2012. His visit was seen by many as an attempt to play up anti-Japan sentiment ahead of elections in late 2012.

In the latest move to reinforce its territorial claim, South Korea unveiled  a 120-centimetre-tall monument in the disputed islets, emblazoned in Korean with “Dokdo” in front, “Republic of Korea” on the back and President Lee Myung-bak’s name on the side.

History

Records of these islands date back to as early as the 15th century. They were referred as Diaoyu in books such as Voyage with a Tail Wind and Record of the Imperial Envoy’s Visit to Ryūkyū (1534). Adopted by the Chinese Imperial Map of the Ming Dynasty, both the Chinese name for the island group (Diaoyu) and the Japanese name for the main island (Uotsuri) both mean “fishing”.

The first reference to the islands in a book published in English was Edward Belcher’s 1848 account of the voyages of HMS Sammarang.[10] Captain Belcher observed that “the names assigned in this region have been too hastily admitted.”[11] Belcher reported anchoring off Pinnacle Island in March 1845.

In 1870s and 1880s, the English name Pinnacle Islands was used by the British navy for the rocks adjacent to the largest island Uotsuri-jima/Diaoyu Dao, Kuba-jima/Huangwei Yu  and Taishō-jima/Chiwei Yu. The name “Pinnacle Islands” is used by some as an English-language equivalent to “Senkaku” or “Diaoyu”.

The collective use of the name “Senkaku” to denote the entire group began with the advent of the controversy in the 1970s.

Views

David Ko of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, the group that organized the Hong Kong mission, accuses Japanese authorities of mistreating the detained crew.

Despite Sino-Japanese tensions running high, Ko says plans are now being formulated for the Hong Kong activists to return to the disputed territory later this year.

“Territorial politics are changing,” he said. “The Americans have shifted their focus back to the Pacific. And, China is unwilling to be surrounded. This is going to be a trouble spot in the near future – the South China Sea, all the way up to the north China Sea.”

Analyst Johnny Lau suggests that the fact this was not the case with the Kai Fung 2 indicates a clear policy shift by the central government in Beijing.

“In 2021, Japan will stress it has controlled the Diaoyu for 50 years,” he said. “In international law, Japan can [then] officially claim they are under [its] sovereignty. So the Chinese government has to do something to stop this. That is why they will try to use more assistance from the general public.”

Protest planned against Japan

Meanwhile, Hong Kong activists are planning a day of national protest against Japan September 18, marking the 81st anniversary of the Japanese invasion of northern China. This event, widely known as the Manchurian Incident, preceded the Second Sino-Japanese war by some six years.

Manchurian incident

The Mukden Incident, also known as the Manchurian Incident, was a staged event engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for invading the northern part of China, known as Manchuria, in 1931.

On September 18, 1931, a small quantity of dynamite was detonated by Lt. Kawamoto Suemori close to a railroad owned by Japan’s South Manchuria Railway near Mukden (now Shenyang). Although the explosion was so weak that it failed to destroy the lines and a train passed minutes later, the Imperial Japanese Army, accusing Chinese dissidents of the act, responded with a full invasion that led to the occupation of Manchuria, in which Japan established its puppet state of Manchukuo six months later. The ruse was soon exposed to the international community, leading Japan to diplomatic isolation and its March 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations. The actual event is known as the “Liutiaohu Incident” and the event including its aftermath is known in Japan as the “Manchurian Incident” and in China as the “September 18 Incident.”