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© KYODO2 Chinese ships chase Japanese fishing boat near Senkaku Islands
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Tom
Time for submarine action. Hold your ground Japan.
WilliB
Japan should put a permant presence on the island, no matter how much the CCP screams.
Bjorn Tomention
China looking for conflict and they do not care who it is with, so long as they can create it.
Then they will play the victim.
OssanAmerica
Xi needs to come down on his military, because right now Japan is looking like the only "friend" China is going to be left with. Absolutely, Japan needs to put anything on those islands. A lighthouse, a rescue station, hell even a MacDonalds. Take out only of course.
macv
payback time japan its way over do
Vince Black
China just can’t stop annoying the rest of the world
JJ Jetplane
This is an interesting turn of events. While Japan, China, Russia, and Korea usually fight over many of the islands located in the sea, they typically don't use force or military action. Most of the people fishing in those disputed areas are just regular working people. This is going too far.
Monty
I hope the world can see the real face of China. Bullying, lying and giving a damned Virus to the whole word!
Japan should stop all business with China and put a Pachinko Hall on the Islands!
Yubaru
Geez, did you just wake up? Crap like this has been happening for years! The "world" doesnt care, too busy with other guano!
smithinjapan
WilliB: "Japan should put a permant presence on the island, no matter how much the CCP screams."
No, what they should do is go to the ICJ and solve the problem of whose islands... oh wait, that only applies when the shoe is on the other foot. I forgot.
Anyway, well all know that if China wanted to put on the islands, no one could stop them. If Japan did, China could stop them, and while people would moan, no one would stop China.
smithinjapan
WilliB: And in any case, why would a permanent presence prove they belong to Japan? SK has lived on and administered Dokdo for ages, but Japan still claims the islands.
stormcrow
Having discussed this issue with 3 of my Japanese students who were quite knowledgeable about the constitution, they said they thought the Senkaku islands were a lost cause. “Why?” Because it wouldn’t be defending Japanese lives, so technically it’d be wrong to fight. I’m the other hand, Okinawa is next on China’s menu, and that would constitute a call to arms because self defense and Japanese lives are involved. “How long?” 20 or 30 years.
rgcivilian1
Until the Japan Self Defense Forces sends a strong message like Vietnam does and sinks their ships as a lesson that no unauthorized ships are allowed, (being this is happening more and more i.e. remember Tibet) period! Then and only then will encroachment cease. Japan has every right to protect itself time to do so. Besides, but first pull out all Japan vested interests out of China. Japan was around and more developed than China just like the US was for over 200 yrs w/o dependence on China , it can do so again. Plus it also has the US umbrella and some pretty tough US Marines standing by always ready to step up.
Ike-in-Tokyo-from-89
You do know who’s in the White House, don’t you?
m6bob
Here's a checklist for Abe:
1) Pull out all Japanese businesses out of China
2) Complete the conversion of the 2 helicopter destroyers to take the F35
3) Put up a military presence on Senkaku
4) Chase any Chinese Coast Guard & fishing boats away from Senkaku waters
Mitsuo Matsuyama
The old political game caused by PRC.
TigersTokyoDome
Considering the current global situation which originated in China, this is a disgusting act by China.
Regardless of all the discussion over who should do what, the fact that China now continues with its military aggression at this time is sickening.
The rest of the world needs to shun China business and back Taiwan. Disband the current WHO while you're at it.
Abe should learn his lesson from this. If he survives his leadership. Japan should have nothing to do with that disgraceful country.
Hung Nguyen
Life is not meant to be easy when having the People's Republic of China (China) as your next door neighbour. You can trade and live harmoniously with China when you are strong and when China is weak. At the time when the world is struggling against the COVIC Pandemic particularly this crisis all started from China, China is now carrying out its plan to take over the Southeast Asia Sea (wrongly called as "South China Sea") and the East Sea (wrongly called as "East China Sea"). For further information about China's aggression in the Southeast Asia Sea, please refer to https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/world/asia/coronavirus-south-china-sea-warships.html.
Fighto!
Outrageous and despicable act by Communist China. No doubt it is a political action to stir up trouble in the region and damage ties with Japan. The poor Japanese fishermen must have been terrified. Summon the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo to lodge an official protest.
OssanAmerica :
Where do you get the idea that Japan is a "friend" of China? It is not.
ETHAN1001
Move some of the US troops from Okinawa and have half US and half Japanese troops stationed there. Then let's see China's reaction and then Trump's reaction. But first let's see the left's reaction in 3, 2, 1...
OssanAmerica
There are still some blatantly uneducated persons who think that the country which already controls a territory is the is the one who must bring an action at the ICJ. There is no claim that the current posessor can bring. China, upon whom the burden of bringing a claim rests, has refused to do so as (1) it would invite similar actions by other nations against China regarding other disputed territories and (2) China has already declared an unwilliongness to recognize foreign jurisdiction (such as the ICJ) in matters concerning it's own territorial sovereignty. The latter putting itself in an awkward position to try to bring a claim against another country.
The Senkakus are Japanese territory according to Japan. The U.S. recognizes them as territory under Japanese administration, a position it took to satisfy Taiwan. But the US has repeatedly declared that defending the Senkakus from any military attempt to take them will be answered by the United States under Article 5 of the US-JPN Mutual Defense Treaty. So unless China is ready to play hardball with the U.S., they are playing with themselves if they are dreaming of taking a part of Okinawa, which houses the largest US military presence in Asia.
drlucifer
Disband the WHO, while we are at it disband all the other international organizations like the UN, WB, IMF etc which over the years have bee used by some bigger nations to further their interest.
OssanAmerica
"While the coronavirus pandemic has created friction between some countries, it appears to have brought out mutual expressions of goodwill between China and Japan, two historical rivals with a sometimes rocky relationship."
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/03/8270d66274a7-feature-global-battle-against-coronavirus-bolsters-japan-china-relations.html
Jayel
Taiwan and Japan should build a coop base on the islands. China will continue to encroach in these waters until it has them all.
voiceofokinawa
If this island group has been China's sovereign territory historically and in light of international law, as the Chinese government claims, the Chinese Coast Guard ships have every right to act as they did. But is China's claim to these islands as indisputable as rock-solid? I have some reservations about it. Here's why I think so:
Why are these barren islands called "Senkakus" in Japan and "Diaoyudaos" in China?
(1)
Common nouns in a language are very ad hoc in naming objects. There's no reason why things are called as they are in languages. However, proper nouns are different from common nouns in that there's always reasons behind -- why they are called by such and such names.
Kubajima (久場島）or Huangwei Yu （黄尾鱮）in Chinese in the Senkaku/Diaoyudao Islands was an important landmark for ancient Ryukyu (Okinawa) seamen and traders navigating on the Okinawa-Fuchuan sea lane. These seafarers, who were thoroughly familiar with the Senkaku waters more than anyone else, called this landmark "Kubajima" because, according to one theory, the island was covered full with “kuba” (or Areca) palms. But I think it was called by that name because the island's shape is quite similar to that of another island called Kubajima, that is located about 40 km west of Naha, Okinawa Island, on the same sea lane. When necessary, the former was called "Iigun Kubajima" to distinguish it from the latter.
Wasn't Chinese "Huangmao (Yu)" （黄毛）as recorded by Chen Kan （陳侃, 1534）and "Huangwei (Yu)" recorded elsewhere, meaning yellow hair or tail, a phonetic conversion of Kuba(-jima)? Note that the k-sound of Japanese (and Okinawan) ordinarily corresponds to the h-sound in Chinese. Or did the Chinese think the island was inhabited by mythic animals with yellow tails or hair and so named it as such?
The easternmost island in the chain is officially called Taishojima in Japan, but historically it used to be called Kumi-Akajima by Ryukyu seamen. Here, too, we see the same mechanism of nomenclature as in the case of Kubajima. There's an island called Akajima in the Kerama Islands whereby Kumi-Akajima in the Senkakus must have been named after this with Kumi added to differentiate it from the original.
The Chinese calls this island Chiwei Yu (赤尾鱮), meaning "red-tailed island." Does it mean the Chinese believed the island was inhabited by animals with red tails? Isn't it a semantic conversion of what Ryukyu seamen called Kumi Akajima (久米阿嘉島）, which could mean "Kume Red Island" if cast in folk etymology?
（To be continued)
(2)
The name "Senkaku" comes from English "Pinnacle Islands." The HMS Samarang made a port at Ishigaki Island three times and on its second port calling in May, 1845, it launched out upon an exploration of the hitherto unheard-of island group which the islanders called Iigunjima. Approaching the islands northward from Ishigaki Island on May 8, they must have been struck with the similarity of the first approaching island to Bartolome Island in the Galapagos, which is famous for its Pinnacle Rock, thus calling the island group Pinnacle Islands. The Japanese name "Senkaku" was coined after this by a natural history teacher named Hisashi Kuroiwa, in 1900, who hailed from Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku and taught at Okinawa Normal School.
The Meiji government called the largest island in the chain "Uotsuri-jma", which is an apparent translation from the Chinese "Diaoyudao". It also called the adjacent islands lying southeast of it "Kita Kojima" (North Islet) and "Minami Kojima" (South Islet) respectively. The Chinese names "Bei Xiaodao" and "Nan Xiaodao" definitely come from these Japanese names.
Ancient Ishigaki fishermen called the island (group) "Iigun-jima." "Iigun" (rhymed with "eagle") means the head of a spear used in dive-fishing, a fishing method probably unknown to the Chinese. The reason why it is called so is similar to why the highest mountain in the Japan Alps in Honshu is called "Yarigadake." The top of the rugged mountain reminds one of the head of a spear ("yari").
Why did the Chinese call the island (group) Diaoyudao meaning "fishing island"? Did unworldly men, as often depicted in Chinese drawings, go there and spent days angling for fish? Or have Chinese fishermen come here to engage in blue-water fishing since ancient times? Note, however, that blue-water fishing started only recently with the development of modern refrigeration technology.
Isn't "Diaoyudao" a semantic conversion of what Chinese royal missions to and from Ryukyu were explained to by Ryukyu seamen and traders traveling and navigating together aboard the same tributary and trading ships? Note that Chinese royal envoys came to Ryukyu Kingdom 25 times during the period from 1373 to 1866. During the same period, Ryukyu seamen, traders and the Ryukyu King's appreciatory envoys sailed to China more than 200 times.
All these linguistic and historical facts must be taken into consideration before anyone says anything definite about sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyudao Islands on the basis of nomenclature.
Why are these barren islands called "Senkakus" in Japan and "Diaoyudaos" in China?
OriginalOne
Chinese navy became brave because of what's going on in the West Philippine Sea. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to stand down because the US would not back up the Philippines in case hostilities escalated between the Philippines and China. So the only recourse was to pursue a court case which the Philippines won but China doesn't recognize, rather conveniently for them because if China had won the legal right they would've openly flaunted it. Funny that it wasn't Clinton's call since the Philippines has the only bilateral defense treaty with the US in the region and neither she nor Obama ever had the power to supersede that treaty without Congress' consent. The problem has been exacerbated by the Communist-loving, pro-Chinese current President Duterte wanting to appease China akin to Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis. So, if they can do it there then China will try to do the same to others like the Vietnamese with the Paracels and Spratlys and Japan with the Senkakus. As long as there's healthy corporate profits to be made off the back of Human Rights victims, we can expect inaction by the West and the free democracies of Asia against the growing hegemony of Red China.
GW
After this virus thing settles down the rest of the worlds business interests inc China needs to promptly start decreasing & we need to start REALLY calling China on its BS politics & military expansion.
As I have been saying for a very long time we MUST stop feeding the Chinese monster we all helped create.
China is off its frigging rocker & needs to be taken down!
Its pay now or pay a LOT later! Conflict to me seems to almost inevitable unless the idiots that run China do some REAL about facing, unlikely sadly....
rgcivilian1
@ OsanAmerica and voiceofokinawa
It really is easy and the question as to who has territorial claims legally was settled by the UN, but be it as it may the Chinese do not abide nor recognize that decision despite being a member of the UN? hmm. perhaps kick them out is best for everyone and like NK be isolated for deceiving the rest of the world in the guise of peace but carefully masking their true colors of colonization thru encroachment as has proven historically by the Chinese.
Strangerland
Who is the 'we' you refer to? If it's the rest of the world, the world has never been able to call out America on it's BS politics and military expansion. I don't see by what means we could call out China, nor do I see by what moral right, after letting America run rampant on the world for near 100 years, we have for calling out China on doing the same thing.
If the 'we' you refer to is America, well go at it. I don't see why the rest of us should choose one master who doesn't listen to us over another though.
theFu
China will push just as far as they think they can, for as long as they can. Going just a little farther each time until Japan stands up and clearly says no more.
That's how bullies work.
Better to handle it from the start, before it becomes overly violent.
oldman_13
Stop Chinese aggression!
Michel Reiziger
WE created the so called Chinese monster the past 20 to 25 years by out sourcing almost our complete production capicity to China and other so called low cost nations. You should be really naive to think that a nation as China only will keep functioning as the 'production hub' for almost the entire world and not developing itself to the most important economic superpower it now is. More than 90% of all products in the world have some sort of a relation with China. That can be production, raw materials to that of high precision parts or machinery. Think about the Apple macbook, the keyboard you type on or the plastic packaging of your food tot that of oil tankers and machinery of almost all goods.
You want less China? To become so called China independent wil take at least as long as becoming dependent of it the past 20 years ro so.
Oh, and don't blame China for it, but your (corrupt) falsely naive politicians who did everything to keep their industry (share holders) and banks happy by letting them outsourcing the past 20 years almost everything which is mass produced.
dougthehead13
smithinjapan Today 06:22 pm JST
Except that China recognized that the Senkaku Islands belong to and are sovereign Japanese territory. Signed on 11 August 1978. Which is the official document recognized by the UN.
That's why China can't go to the ICJ now to claim those islands. Because judicially it has no chance of success.
Peeping_Tom
"Japan needs to put anything on those islands"
There are currently 2 lighthouses on the islands.
"No, what they should do is go to the ICJ and solve the problem of whose islands... oh wait, that only applies when the shoe is on the other foot. I forgot."
False "ignorance" of the law's process and procedures will lead you nowhere in this regards.
You KNOW VERY WELL who has to initiate Court action in this instance; it's NOT Japan, that's for sure.
Probably you think it's Vanuatu.
Samit Basu
So much ignorance here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_Cairo_Declaration#Text
https://www.ndl.go.jp/constitution/e/etc/c06.html
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/hirohito.htm
1) Per terms of Potsdam Declaration, Taiwan and its surrounding islands, including the Diaoyu Islands, has been returned to the Republic of China.
2) Hence the current legal owner of the Diaoyu Islands is the Republic of China government in Taiwan.'
3) Chinese claim to the Diaoyu Islands is that it is the successor government of the Republic of China, not the one in Taipei.
4) Hence it is not possible for Japan to hold onto the Diaoyu Islands, both by international law and by military, the best option left for Japan is to return the Diaoyu Islands to Taipei government.
kwhateverulike
China “bully” is at it again. They always do this kind of act in Philippines. Good job JCG for holding your grounds protect what’s yours unlike my Philippine government
dougthehead13
Samit Basu Today 01:48 am JST
The Potsdam Declaration was the document demanding the surrender of the Japanese Empire by the allied powers. And their demand for territories was only a base document for the return of the occupied territories. Based on the previous borders of 1895. The Senkakus Islands have belonged to Japan since 1879. 16 years earlier than the Potsdam Declaration requires.
However, the legal document that specifies that these islands are Japanese resides in the Treaty of San Francisco. Which are backed and audited by the United Nations. And the People's Republic of China also recognized the Senkaku Islands as a Japanese territory in 1978. As I mentioned earlier.
Samit Basu
@dougthehead13
Wrong, Fomosa(Taiwan) by name is listed as a part of Chinese territory that Imperial Japan has stolen from China in the Cairo Declaration and must be returned to the Republic of China per terms of the Potsdam Declaration.
Emperor Hirohito has personally declared the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration on the surrender date August 15 1945, so Taiwan and its periphery islands, the Diaoyu Islands, have been taken off Japan's hand and they formally belong to the Republic of China per international law.
Not only is Japan illegally occupying the ROC's territory they are obliged to return, the Diaoyu Islands are simply indefensible should China decide to recover by military means.
Therefore it is Japan's best strategic interest to return the Diaoyu Islands to the Republic of China's government in Taiwan and take the problem off its hand. Japan's almost assured defeat at the hands of PLA's recovery force is far more damaging to Japan both politically, militarily, and economically than to the handover process.
Peeping_Tom
"However, the legal document that specifies that these islands are Japanese resides in the Treaty of San Francisco"
Correct.
Some would appear to lack basic understanding of Principles of "Derogation" "Abrogation" & "Repeal" of Law/Statutes.
In any event, the Cairo Declaration was SIMPLY an ultimatum.
No Legal force can be read/inferred from such a document; it set forth goals for post-war Japan, and that was it.
Even if the Cairo Declaration had any "judicial force" (which it hadn't), it was superseded by the 1951 Treaty.
As you (correctly) said, matters of Law were/are contained in the Peace Treaty of San Francisco, 1951.
Disclaimer:
Not intended as a Legal advice; however, my knowledge of Legalism was not acquired on Wiki "searches".
RealCDN
Liaoning is mandarin for 'artificial reef'.
GW
SL, By we I am referring to western countries, NOT just the US. And imo if WE don't start taking China down some we are all going to be in for some NASTY pain! I am not a Yank & while I disagree on some things the US has done\doing I don't think they have been as bad as China is going top turn out, time will tell as they saying goes on that.
Michel R,
This started way longer ago than 25yrs more like around 40+yrs ago. I remember going to Uni back in Cda in 82 & there were a lot of Chinese students at my Uni mostly in math, engineering & computer science & they were all on MISSIONS, failure was NOT an option! They HAD to excel or their families back home would suffer & they would have to answer to the Chinese govt. It was insane! They were vacuuming up info & buying LOTS of text books, they were literally taking as much tech as humanely possible & getting it back to China by all means possible & THAT has gone on ever SINCE the 80s!
You are correct dis-investing in China will take decades unless hostilities break out sooner, BUT imo as of now the west had better start this process & start ramping up, its going to be nasty however this turns out.
Important note I have NO ISSUES with Chinese people only their govt & military etc
Hung Nguyen
China is a big and ugly bully.
China's long standing territory claim of the Southeast Asia Sea is fraudulent. Its evidence – "the Chinese fishermen were there since the antiquity" – is primitive and unsubstantial. Despite the international court ruling that China has “no historical rights” under its “nine-dash line” which Beijing uses to claim sovereignty to nearly 90% of the sea, China has just ignored and intimidated its weaker neighbours in the Southeast Asia Sea.
Nonetheless, the situation is likely to change
should Vietnam file an international arbitration case against China’s expansive claims in the troubled water (see https://asiatimes.com/2020/05/vietnam-may-soon-sue-china-on-south-china-sea/).
in case China keeps pushing Vietnam beyond reasons, Vietnam may officially team up with the US, Japan, and India and this should be the end of China's expansion in the region. This new direction is subtly indicated in the 2019 Vietnam's new defence white paper on page 25. I loosely interpreted this pivotal message, as follows:Depending on the development of situations and conditions, Vietnam would consider joining forces in defence (my note: with powerful players in the region) for mutual benefits and stability for the ASEAN and the world community...