The Obama Administration has announced that it is backing Japan’s claims on the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu island chain in the East China Sea, raising tensions in the standoff between China and Japan.
US warplanes and Japanese civilian planes have both violated the “airspace defense” zone that China has set up in the area. China has warned it serves a right to take action against future violations.
Ownership of the unpopulated islands is complicated. They were historically claimed as part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which had ties with the Ming Dynasty of China, which is where Chinese claims of it being theirs originates. Japan occupied the islands in the late 19th century and had some industrial interests in the island through World War 2, when it was occupied by the United States.
The US “returned” the islands to Japan in 1972, but they have sat unusued and uninhabited since. The discovery of significant offshore oil reserves has made their ownership a matter of contention for both Japan and China, as well as Taiwan. China’s declaration of territory aims to settle the matter, but Japan is continuing to dispute that, and the US seems to be backing them.
China has condemned the US actions as “irresponsible,” and there are fears of clashes originating from the dispute. Such a clash clearly benefits no one, however, and while a lot of bluster is to be expected on all sides, escalation would take a lot of additional blundering.
Lets see the US backs Israel who had nothing to do with the ownership of that region since before the Roman empire, there had been no Israeli Governance since at least the Roman days, In fact less than 600 year in total since the dawn of time, yet the Islands are Japanese because they were appropriated in the nineteenth century taken as a US War Prize and then returned to Japan several decades later! Congratulations America you have just increased the confusion as to who can own what, interestingly when the islands were returned to Japan you were in fact returning them to a country that had obtained them by Military conquest, I suggest if America hadn't claimed them then China would have been given them back after the War!
Wonder what would happen to all that money the US owes China if they go to war?
To risk a shooting war with China over some unpopulated islands in the East China Sea is insane. A reasonable solution to this problem is for China and Japan to jointly develop the oil reserves, however, Japan with a powerful patron like the United States is not likely to be reasonable. The USG should make clear to Japan that it will not go to war with China over the Senkaku islands.
The Chinese claim to the islands rests on the principle that they were taken by the Japanese in the same way that they acquired Formosa (Taiwan). However, it is the presence of oil that is the real driving force, as the islands are of no particular significance otherwise. And the reason that the FedGov has taken such a keen interest in this dispute is that the Japanese possession of the islands are useful in the US strategy to deny petroleum resources to China.
Why is it that the United States always manages to stick its nose into the affairs of others in an adversarial way? We do absolutely nothing internationally that isn't provocative and off-putting. In this case, howver, China just might stick a finger in our eye and it would be entirely deserved. One considers with a new perspective Stalin's March 1946 interview with Pravda:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/…
The Chinese have not lived on those islands for over 100 years, how can they claim those islands? The Tibetans and Uyghurs have lived in their native lands for thousands of years, yet the Chinese have taken their lands and oppressed their people to the extent that they now set themselves on fire in protest. Before seizing lands to which they have no rightful claim, the Chinese should first set free the lands of Tibet, Eastern Turkestan, and Inner Mongolia!
Ever talk to a Chinese person? That will never happen.
America caused this mess due to cold war mind thinking. Do not forget who attack Pearl Harbor 70 years ago. How do we know Japan may not attack us again!? America should stand neutral, try to stop a dispute, not pour gas on fire. Let Japan resolve this mess with China by itself.
Wow,coming from US,who claim the whole western hemisphere as our oyster(Monroe Doctrine),from Patagonia to Ellesmere Island,one might point out hypocrisy of denying these islands to the traditional owner,China,and backing two suppliers of US consumption.
Our leaders are certifiable.Let's pivot back to America,and let these ancient rivals settle their own differences without insane western idiocy.
Sigh, every discussion about China will draw at least one comment from one of these "Guests", who insist that "Chinese" is synonymous with "Han" and "PRC". Yes, the Chinese ethnicity is by and large Han, as the latter constitutes the population majority, but the Chinese nationality is anything but! (think of being "English" vs being "British", or being "Bengali" vs being "Indian"). PRC is only 64 years old, a blip in the continuous Chinese history. Discussing China using only Han and PRC as benchmarks is like discussing US history while focusing only on Americans of English ancestry and US policies since the Truman administration.
The Tibetans and Uighurs are every bit as Chinese as the Han in the national sense, and enjoy the same (if not more) rights and privileges as the majority Han. Whatever oppression they experience is experienced by all Chinese nationals, regardless of ethnicity.
Tibet and Xinjiang have been under continuous "Chinese" sovereignty/suzerainty longer than the land we now live in has been "The United States of America". Sure, many Tibetans and Uighurs have been unhappy being "Chinese" and want independence, the same way that many southerners had wished to split from the Union. However, China is as likely to "free" these" occupied" territories today as the US would have "freed" the CSA or the Kingdom of Hawaii, and under about the same degree of legal and moral obligations.
As for Mongolia, read up on Russian expansionism in the 19th Century to see why there is even an "inner" and "outer" Mongolia split. Hint: the Chinese were not the aggressors.
Instead of getting all of one's information from exile propaganda pamphlets, one would do well to read up on independent sources. Even a casual perusal of relevant Wikipedia entries would reveal many of the widely accepted "truths" surrounding these topics for what they actually are – oversimplifications, exaggerations, distortions, myths.
The prime reason for the dispute is that the islands were taken as part of the spoils of the Sino-Japanese war of 1894 and should have been returned to China in 1945. Instead they were given to Japan in 1971 for frivolous reasons, i.e. to gain some advantage in the US-Japan textile dispute, while ignoring Taiwan's protests and China's claims. To compound the ignominy, the US is standing behind a former aggressor of China who caused 20 million dead and countless suffering during WWII and is backing its ill-gotten gains. More than any petroleum that may lie beneath the substrate of the islands, they would have allowed China open access to the Pacific as the entire eastern seaboard is under Japan's control (why did Russia insist on getting the Kuriles??) . The US is pissing away the good will of 1.2 billion Chinese and currying favor with a hated former aggressor. Let the march of folly continue….
Obama and his advisors have made a fatal mistake in backing Japan on the island dispute. Those islands were not Japanese until Japan defeated the Manchu dynasty in 1894 and took control of Taiwan and adjacent islands in a peace settlement. In 1945, as part of peace treaty to end WWII, Taiwan was returned to China. The United States had no right to "give" the Diaoyu islands to Japan in 1972, because it was not U.S. possession to begin with. Obama and his advisors have an extremely short attention span in addition to short memory. Japan attacked the U.S.. Japan invaded China. Now, Obama is backing a former enemy who perpetrated Pearl Harbor on the U.S.. War is coming, and Obama just dragged U.S. into a conflict that American airmen and sailors originally did not have to die for. Wrong war, wrong opponent, wrong time, all because we have the wrong president.