Senkaku Islands dispute

The Senkaku Islands dispute, also known as the Diayutai Islands dispute or the Pinnacle Islands dispute concerns a group of uninhabited islands controlled and administered by Japan since 1895. The Senkaku Islands have been the subject of a territorial dispute since the early 1970s.

The United States controlled the islands as part of its occupation of Okinawa from 1945 to 1972.

These small islands have been claimed by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 1971.

The controversial diplomatic issues of sovereignty are marked by a complex array of economic and political considerations and consequences.

Territorial dispute

Beginnings

Following the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji Japanese government formally annexed what was known as the Ryukyu Kingdom as Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. The Senkaku Islands, which lie between Ryukyu Kingdom and Qing empire, became the Sino-Japanese boundary for the first time.

In 1885, the Japanese Governor of Okinawa Prefecture, Nishimura Sutezo, petitioned the Meji government asking that it take formal control of the Senkaku Islands. However, Inoue Kaoru, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, commented that the islands lay near to the border area with the Qing empire and that they had been given Chinese names. He also cited an article in a Chinese newspaper that had previously claimed that Japan was occupying islands off China's coast. Inoue was concerned that if Japan proceeded to erect a landmark stating its claim to the islands, it would make the Qing empire suspicious. Following Inoue's advice, Yamagata Aritomo, the Minister of the Interior turned down the request to incorporate the islands, insisting that this matter should not be "revealed to the news media".

On 14 January 1895, during the Sino-Japanese War, Japan incorporated the islands under the administration of Okinawa, stating that it had conducted surveys since 1884 and that the islands were terra nullius (Latin: no man's land), with there being no evidence to suggest that they had been under Qing empire's control.

After China lost the war, both countries signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895 that stipulated, among other things, that China would cede to Japan "the island of Formosa together with all islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa (Taiwan)".

The treaty, however, was nullified after Japan lost the Second world war in 1945 by the Treaty of San Francisco, which was signed between Japan and part of the Allied Powers in 1951. The document nullifies prior treaties and lays down the framework for Japan's current status of retaining a military that is purely defensive in nature.

There is a disagreement between the Japanese, PRC (China) and ROC (Taiwan) governments as to whether the Senkaku Islands are implied to be part of the "islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa" in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Japanese government argues that the disputed islands were terra nullius and not implied to be part of the "islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa but both two states of China disputed the claim by citing Yamagata Aritomo's reasons and decisions to turn down the request to incorporating those islands in 1885.

In 1969, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) indicated the possibility of large oil and gas reserves around the Senkaku Islands. In the same year, the US expressed its intention to hand over Okinawa and its surrounding islands, including the Senkaku Islands, occupied since the end of World War II to Japan. Subsequently, both the ROC and PRC have protested. The ROC made an official announcement to this effect on 11 June 1971, followed by the PRC on 30 December. However, the United States handed over the Senkaku Islands to Japan on 15 May 1972. In 1972 when the PRC and Japan restored the diplomatic relation, while Deng Xiaoping stated that "the sovereignty is ours", he proposed to shelve up the dispute and co-develop the region. Let the dispute be solved until a better resolution comes up in the "wiser next generation".

Since 1971, the Senkaku Islands have been controlled by Japan and claimed by the PRC and ROC.

Arguments from PRC and ROC

A 1785 Japanese map, the Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (三国通覧図説) by Hayashi Shihei adopted the Chinese kanji (釣魚臺 Diaoyutai) to annotate the Senkaku Islands, which were painted in the same color as China. The primary text itself can be found here.

The two governments of China argue that the sovereignty dispute is a legacy of Japanese invasion of China and complicated by the civil war between two China governments. Their claims include the following arguments:

1. The islands were China's frontier off-shore defence against wokou (Japanese pirates) during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). A Chinese map of Asia, as well as a map complied by a Japanese cartographer in the 18th century, shows the islands as a part of China.
2. Japan took control of the islands during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895, to whom they were formally ceded by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The letter of the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1885, stating that the annexation of the islands "would attract the attention of the Ching Nation (China)", shows that Japan knew the islands were not terra nullius (No man's land).
3. The Potsdam Declaration stated that "Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine", and "we" referred to the victors of WWII who met at Potsdam, the USA, UK and Republic of China. Japan accepted the terms of the Declaration when it surrendered.
4. Both the PRC and ROC governments never endorsed the transfer of control of the islands to Japan in 1970s.

According to Chinese claims, the islands, known to China at least since 1372, had been repeatedly referred to as part of Chinese territory since 1534, and later controlled by the Qing Dynasty along with Taiwan. The earliest written record of Diaoyutai dates back to 1403 in a Chinese book Voyage with the Tail Wind ([[:zh:順風相送]), which recorded the names of the islands that voyagers had passed on a trip from Fujian to the Ryukyu Kingdom.

The book also described the early Chinese survey on the islands by stating that "the harbor of Diaoyutai is suitable for getting firewoods and water. (For) setting sails, the water depth is 15 fathoms."

By 1534, all the major islets of the island group were identified and named in the book Record of the Imperial Envoy's Visit to Ryukyu (使琉球錄). and were the Ming Dynasty (the 16th century) 's sea-defense frontier. One of the islands, Chihweiyu, marked the boundary of the Ryukyu Islands. This is viewed by the ROC and PRC as meaning that these islands did not belong to the Ryukyu Islands.

The First Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1894. After the Qing dynasty of China lost the war, both countries signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki on 17 April 1895. The Treaty ceded Taiwan and its surrounding islands to Japan. Although the Treaty did not specifically name every ceded island,, the ROC and PRC argue that Japan did not include the Senkaku islands as part of Okinawa Prefecture prior to 1894, and that the eventual inclusion occurred only as a consequence of China's cession of Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War.

The Japanese government argues that the Senkaku islands were not ceded by this treaty. but the claim is disputed by Chinese governments, quoting the documents of Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1884. In that year, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs objected the annexation of those islands by stating that those islands were "near to the Qing (China)'s border", "had Chinese names", and Japanese activity "in the offshore's coast of Qing Dynasty had already raised the attention of Chinese newspapers and were warned by China". Following this advice, the Japanese interior minister, Yamagata Aritomo, turned down the request for incorporating those islands into Japanese territory. The Chinese governments see it as an evidence to disprove Japanese claim that those islands were terra nullius when they decided to incorporate them in 1895.

The Japanese government kept postponing the issue and it was only in 1895, when Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War was manifested, that the application was finally accepted in a Cabinet meeting. They also claim that the Japanese reference to these islands did not appear in Japanese government documents before 1884.

After the World War II, there was renewed civil war between the Chinese Communist Party and Kuomintang. The two parties formed competing governments, the PRC and ROC respectively. Both governments held undefined positions on the sovereignty and administration on the islands until 1971, when the U.S. expressed its intention to hand over the Senkaku Islands to Japan. Both the PRC and ROC governments protested and claimed sovereignty over the islands as a part of Taiwan..

ROC and PRC governments claim that during negotiations with China over the Ryukyu Islands after the First Sino-Japanese War, the Senkaku islands were not mentioned at all in a partition plan suggested by US ex-President Grant. The lease of the islands in 1896 and subsequent purchase in 1930 by the Koga family were merely domestic arrangements made by the Japanese government which had no bearing on the legal status of the islands."

Arguments from Japan

File:1953renminribao.GIF

An article published by the Renmin Ribao in1953. It refers to the islets as the "Senkaku islands" and as being part of the Ryuku Islands (Okinawa).

The Japanese stance is that there is no territorial issue that needs to be resolved over the Senkaku. It has stated the following points as claim for the islands and counter-argument against China's claim.

1. The islands had been uninhabited and showed no trace of having been under the control of China prior to 1895.
2. The islands were neither part of Taiwan nor part of the Pescadores Islands, which were ceded to Japan by the Qing Dynasty of China in Article II of the May 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, thus were not later renounced by Japan under Article II of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
3. Though the islands were controlled by the United States as an occupying power between 1945 and 1972, Japan has since 1972 exercised administration over the islands. The PRC and ROC (Taiwan) have come to claim the sovereignty since a submarine oil field was discovered near these islands.

A letter from the Republic of China (中華民國) consul to Nagasaki written on May 20, 1921. The letter referred to "Senkaku Islands, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture, the Empire of Japan".

The Washington Times claims that this is a classified PRC government map from 1969 and that it lists the "Senkaku islands" as Japanese territory.

During a private visit 9 years after stepping down from office, former President of Republic of China, Lee Teng-hui, once said that the Senkaku Islands are part of Okinawa.

After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government conducted surveys of the islands beginning in 1885, which found that the islands were terra nullius (Latin: no man's land) and that there was no evidence to suggest that they had ever been under Chinese control. At the time of this survey, however, Yamagata Aritomo, the minister of interior of the Meji government, put off the request to incorporate the islands, saying that those islands lay near the Sino-Japanese boundary and already had Chinese names.

On 14 January 1895, Japan incorporated the islands into its territory, during the First Sino-Japanese War, three months after its military victory and three months before the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japan erected a marker on Kubajima and Uotsurijima to incorporate them as its territory. This decision was publicized in 1950. Four of the islands were subsequently developed by Koga Tatsushirō (古賀 辰四郎) and his family, with the permission of the Japanese government.

Neither China nor Ryukyu had recognized sovereignty over the uninhabited islands. Therefore, they claim that Chinese documents only prove that Kumejima, the first inhabited island reached by the Chinese, belonged to Okinawa. Kentaro Serita (芹田 健太郎) of Kobe University points out that the official history book of the Ming Dynasty compiled during the Qing Dynasty, called the History of Ming (明史), describes Taiwan in its "Biographies of Foreign Countries" (外国列传) section. Thus, China did not control the Senkaku Islands or Taiwan during the Ming Dynasty. The contrary viewpoint is that this evidence goes only to verify that the early Qing Dynasty (which compiled the book) saw Taiwan and its surrounding islands as outside its territory. For 39 years between the end of the Ming Dynasty and the conquest of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty, Taiwan was ruled by a separate regime, the Kingdom of Tungning, which swore loyalty to the Ming. Such evidence is thus not relevant to the Qing Dynasty's attitude towards the islands after its conquest of Taiwan.

After a number of Chinese were rescued from a shipwreck in 1920, a letter purportedly sent to Japanese fishermen by the Chinese Consul Feng Mien (冯冕/馮冕) in Nagasaki on behalf of the Republic of China (中華民國) on May 20, 1921, reference was made to "Senkaku Islands, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture, the Empire of Japan". The letter is on exhibition at Yaeyama museum.

The People's Daily, a daily newspaper, which is the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), had written that Senkaku islands is the part of Japanese territory in 1953.

The Washington Times claims that there is a classified map made by the PRC's map authority in 1969 and further claims that it lists the "Senkaku Islands" as Japanese territory.

A World Atlas published in October 1965 by the National Defense Research Academy and the China Geological Research Institute of Taiwan records the Diaoyu Islands with Japanese names: Gyochojima (Diaoyu Islands), Taishojima (Chiwei Island), and Senkaku Gunto. In the late 1970s, the government of ROC began to recall these books, but it was too late.

A world atlas published in November 1958, by the Map Publishing Company of Beijing, treats the Senkaku Islands as a Japanese territory. He also writes that a state-prescribed textbook published in 1970 in Taiwan treated the islands as Japanese territories.

After World War II, the islands came under the United States occupation of Okinawa. During this period, the United States and the Ryūkyū Government administered the islands and the US Navy used Kuba-jima and Taisho-jima as maneuver areas. In 1972, sovereignty over Okinawa, and arguably the surrounding islands, was handed back to Japan as the United States Military Government terminated its jurisdiction over territories originally specified in Article 3 of the Treaty of San Francisco.

From 1895 to 1940, there was a Katsuobushi (fish flakes) factory and about 200 Japanese resident on the islands. In 1978, a Japanese nationalist group, Nihonseinensha built a lighthouse on Uotsuri Jima, which was subsequently handed over to the Japanese government in 2005.

Historical events

• 1532: On the 8th of the 5th month (lunar calendar), Chen Kan, leading the envoy on behalf of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China to Ryukyu, recorded the islands as landmarks en route.
• 1561: Ming envoy Kuo Ju-lin, following Chen Kan, set sail from Fuzhou on the 29th of the 5th month and recorded passing the islands as landmarks.
• 1785: A Japanese map by Hayashi Shihei indicated the islands in the same color of that of China, and different from that of Ryukyu. (See "Arguments from PRC and ROC" for more information).
• 1879: Ryukyu was officially annexed by Japan as the Okinawa Prefecture.
• 1885: Japan began survey on the islands.
• 1895: Japan claimed the islands were terra nullius in the middle of the First Sino-Japanese war and annexed the islands. 3 months later, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed by China and Japan.
• 1900: The name Senkaku was first mentioned in Japanese literatures, a translation of Pinnacles.
• 1909: Japanese population of the islands became 248."
• 1945: US controlled the islands after Japan surrendered
• 1970: A Taiwanese reporter of the China Times landed and hanged the national flag of Republic of China.
• December 1971: The People's Republic of China (PRC) first officially claimed (via People's Daily) sovereignty when Japan made known its official standpoint with the signing of the Okinawa Reversion Treaty.
• 1972: The US returned the Senkaku islands to Japan as part of Okinawa.
• 1978: The Japan Youth Association set up a lighthouse on the main island.
• 14 July 1996: The Japan Youth Association built a 5 m high, solar-powered, aluminum lighthouse on another island.
• 14 September 1996: the U.S. State Department spokesman reiterated its neutral position on the sovereignty dispute between Japan and China.
• 26 September 1996: David Chan, a Hong Kong protester, drowned near the islets, after leaping off one of the protest vessels with several companions with the object of symbolizing Chinese claim of sovereignty.
• 7 October 1996: Protesters plant the flags of the ROC and the PRC on the main island. It was later removed by the Japanese.
• 9 April 1999: The U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas S. Foley said "we are not, as far as I understand, taking a specific position in the dispute.... we do not assume that there will be any reason to engage the security treaty in any immediate sense."
• 20 April 2000: Senkaku Shinto shrine (尖閣神社) was established on Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyudao.
• April 2002: The Japanese government leased Uotsuri and other islands from their private owners.
• 24 March 2004: A group of Chinese activists from the PRC planned to stay on the Islands for three days. The seven people who landed on the islands were arrested by the Japanese for illegal entry. The Japanese Foreign Ministry made a complaint to the PRC government, and the PRC demanded the release of the activists. They were sent to Japan and deported from there. Japan subsequently stated that it would prohibit anybody from landing on the islands without prior permission.
• 24 March 2004: Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman at the U.S. State Department said "the U.S. does not take a position on the question of the ultimate sovereignty of the Senkaku Diaoyu Islands."
• February 2005: Japan planned to take ownership of a privately-owned lighthouse on Uotsuri, after it was offered to them by the owner, a fisherman living on Ishigaki, Okinawa. The lighthouse is expected to be managed by the Japanese Coast Guard.
• 23 April 2004: a member of a Japanese right-wing group rammed a bus into the Chinese consulate in Osaka, to protest Chinese claims.
• July 2004: Japan started exploring for natural gas in what it considers its own exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea as a step to counter China's building of a natural gas complex nearby. Japan plans to survey a 30-kilometer-wide band stretching between latitudes 28 and 30 degrees North, just inside the border demarcated by Japan. China disputes Japan's rights to explore the area east of the median line between the two countries, which Japan has proposed as the demarcation line for their exclusive economic zones.
• July 2004: a group of Chinese held a demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing afternoon to protest Japan's "illegal" oil exploration activities in a disputed area of the East China Sea. The protesters, organized by Beijing-based organization called the Patriots Alliance Network.
• 10 February 2005: On Voice of America, the U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said that Japan's new assertiveness is in line with the desires of many Japanese politicians to take their country beyond its post-World War Two reliance on the United States. "It's a question of the evolution of Japanese thinking on its own. Japan has made it clear they want to resolve all of the territorial disputes by diplomatic means and that's certainly something that we agree with. Our kind of getting in the middle of it is probably not the most productive way to proceed."
• June 2005: The ROC dispatched a ROCN frigate near to the disputed waters after Taiwanese fishing vessels were harassed by Japanese patrol boats. The frigate, which was carrying Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng and ROC Defense Minister Lee Jye, was not challenged and returned to Taiwan without incident. Fisheries talks between Taipei and Tokyo were held in July, but did not cover sovereignty issues.
• 17 March 2006: Kyodo News reported the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, presented that he considered "the Islands as territory of Japan" in his talk in Tokyo.
• 27 October 2006: A group of activists from the Hong Kong-based Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands approached the islands to show the support for Chinese claims to the Diaoyu Islands. They were stopped from landing on the islands by the Japan Coast Guard. Later on, the PLAN conducted a military exercise in the area.
• 16 April 2008: two PLAAF J-10A multi-role fighter peremptorily intercepted a Japanese P-3C anti-submarine and reconnaissance airplane that was flying closely above the Senkaku Islands. The two J-10 fighters were suspected of protecting Chinese nuclear submarines that were operating in that area.
• 8 September 2008: Two Chinese coast guard vessels started routine patrol within 12 kilometers of Senkaku Islands in order to declare the Senkaku Islands as Chinese territory.
• 10 June 2008: The 270 ton sport fishing vessel Lien Ho of Taiwan suffered a collision with the Japanese patrol vessel Koshiki and subsequently sank while in the disputed territorial waters that have been claimed by Japan and Taiwan. The Taiwanese crew who were aboard the vessel claims that the larger Japanese frigate deliberately crashed into them; their assertions are backed up by recently released video footage. While releasing the passengers, Japan initially detained the captain and sought reparations. Upon releasing the video taken by people on board the Taiwanese boat, Japan had to agree to pay NT$10 million (US$311,000) as compensation to the owner of the boat. The captain has subsequently been released and has returned to Taiwan. Liu Chao-shiuan, Premier of the Republic of China, has refused to rule out the use of force to defend the islands against Japanese advances. The ROC government recalled its chief representative to Japan in protest. On June 16, a boat carrying activists from Taiwan, defended by five Republic of China Coast Guard vessels, approached to within 0.4 nautical miles (740 m) of the main island, from which position they circumnavigated the island in an assertion of sovereignty of the islands. This demonstration has prompted Taiwanese politicians to cancel a planned trip on-board Republic of China Navy vessels to demonstrate sovereignty. The Taiwanese vessels were followed by Japanese Coast Guard vessels, but no attempt was made to intercept them. On June 20, the de-facto Japanese ambassador to Taiwan apologized, in person, to the captain of the Taiwanese boat Lien Ho.
• 7 September 2010: A Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats in disputed waters near the islands. The collisions occurred after the Japanese Coast Guard ordered the trawler to leave the area. After the collisions, Japanese sailors boarded the Chinese vessel and arrested the captain Zhan Qixiong.
• 18 September 2010: 79th anniversary of the Mukden Incident, widespread anti-Japanese protests held in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shenyang.
• 22 Chinese premier Wen Jiabao threatened further action if the captain of the Chinese fishing trawler were not released.
• 24 September 2010: Japan released the Chinese captain, stating keeping the captain in custody would not be appropriate and raised considerable impact on the Sino-Japan relation.
• 25 September 2010: China demanded an apology and compensation from Japan for holding the Chinese boat captain in the collision incident. Japan rejected the Chinese demand.
• 27 September 2010: Japan said they would counter-claim against China for damage to their patrol boats in the collision.
• 3 October 2010: A group of right wing Japanese protesters marched to the Ikebukuro mall specializing in Chinese food, calling Chinese "garbage" and "cockroaches" and demanding "Chinese Get Out" and "Guard the Senkaku Islands". Japanese authorities described the demonstration as "peaceful".
• December 2010: Joint USA/Japan drill is planned on defending the Okinawa islands. But Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto told the parliament that the joint military exercise does not have the Senkaku islands specifically in mind.

See also

• Liancourt Rocks dispute
• Spratly Islands dispute
• Paracel Islands

References

• Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea. (2000). International Organizations and the Law of the Sea. London : Graham & Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff. OCLC 16852368
• Suganuma, Unryu. (2000). Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 10-ISBN 0824821599/13-ISBN 9780824821593; 10-ISBN 0824824938/13-ISBN 9780824824938; OCLC 170955369

External links

• Global Security, Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands