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Senkaku Islands

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The Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島, Senkaku Shotō) are a group of disputed, uninhabited islands currently administered by Japan, but also claimed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan). In Chinese, the islands are known as the Diaoyutai Islands (simplified Chinese: 钓鱼台群岛; traditional Chinese: 釣魚台群島; pinyin: Diàoyútái Qúndǎo). They are also known as the "Pinnacle Islands", a name given by British navigators, which is also the probable source for the Japanese name. The Chinese name literally means "Angling Platform Islands" or "Angling Islands". Their status has emerged as a major issue in Sino-Japanese relations.

Geography

Location of the islands (inside red rectangle and inset)
The largest island, Uotsuri-jima or Diaoyu-dao

The group is made up of five small volcanic islands:

  • Uotsuri-jima (魚釣島)⊕ or Diao yu Dao (釣魚島本島 "Fishing Island" or 主島): area 4.319 km², highest elevation 383 m
  • Kuba-jima (久場島) or Huangwei Yu (黃尾嶼 "Yellow Tail"): 1.08 km²
  • Taisho-jima(大正島) or Chiwei Yu (赤尾嶼 "Red Tail")
  • Kita Kojima or Beixiao Dao (北小島 "Northern Islet")※: highest elevation 135 m
  • Minami Kojima or Nanxiao Dao (南小島 "Southern Islet")※: highest elevation 149 m

And three rocks  :

  • Da bei xiao dao (大北小島 "Great northern small island" ) or Okino Kitaiwa (沖ノ北岩 "Northern Rocks of the Open Sea")
  • Da nan xiao dao (大南小島 "Great southern small island" ) or (沖ノ南岩 "Southern Rocks of the Open Sea")
  • Fei lai dao (飛瀬島 "Flying Shoal" ) or Tobise (飛瀬 "Flying Shoal")

Japanese name literally derived from the Chinese name ※Chinese name derived from the Japanese name

In Japan, the islands are considered part of the Southwest Islands. They are 170 km north of Ishigaki Island, Japan; 170 km northeast of Keelung, Taiwan; and 410 km west of Okinawa Island. The PRC considers that the islands sit on the edge of the continental shelf of mainland Asia, and are separated from the Ryukyu Islands by a sea trench, while Japan considers that the continental shelf stretches to the much deeper Nansei-shoto Trench, east to the Southwest Islands and that the islands and the Ryukyu Islands are on the same continental shelf.

Territorial dispute

Note: China refers to both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC), if unspecified.

The islands are currently administrated by Japan as a part of Ishigaki City, Okinawa prefecture. In China, it is a part of Taiwan province (Daxi Village (大溪里), Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan Province).

Chinese claims

Ming Dynasty claim

China claims that the islands were within the Ming Dynasty's sea-defense area and are a part of Taiwan. According to the Chinese, the islands were first mentioned in literature in 1372 and were first documented by royal visitors travelling from China to the Ryukyu Kingdom, located in what is now Japan's Okinawa prefecture. Their documentation states: "When crossing the sea, we could see black ocean current underneath. The guide said, after passing this black current, they will leave the boundary of China. At this stage, we can see a series of islands that cannot be seen on the return trip."

Qing Dynasty claim

From 1624 until 1662, Taiwan and its surrounding islands were controlled by the Dutch as a base for commerce. In 1662, the Dutch were driven out by ex-Ming Dynasty general Zheng Chenggong (more popularly known as Koxinga). Zheng Chenggong and his successors established the Kingdom of Tungning and controlled the area until 1683. That year, Zheng's grandson Zheng Ke-Shuang was defeated by Qing Dynasty forces led by Admiral Shi Lang. From then on, Qing Dynasty China gained effective control over Taiwan and its surrounding islands, including the islands in dispute today.

Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Receding of China's territories

After losing the First Sino-Japanese War, Qing China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki on 17 April, 1895. This "unequal treaty" ceded Taiwan and its surrounding islands to Japan, although without explicitly mentioning the islands in dispute today. The formal position of China is that all the "unequal treaties" are null and void and thus the islands are still part of Taiwan province of China.

Tokyo court ruling

China also asserted that in 1944, the Tokyo court ruled that the islands were part of Taihoku Prefecture (Taipei Prefecture), following a dispute between Okinawa Prefecture and Taihoku Prefecture. However, the assertion was solely based on a "claim" by the president of the fishermen's association of Keelung city in 4 August, 1971. The primary source of this paragraph can be found in the journal "Modern China Studies", Issue 1, 1997 (in Simplified Chinese). .

Japanese claims

Formal incorporation

Japan claims that after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government conducted surveys of the islands beginning in 1885 confirming no evidence that the uninhabited islands had been under Chinese control, though this conflicts with the earlier Chinese claim of the islands during the Qing Dynasty. At the time of this survey, Japan did not formally declare a claim to the islands. Instead, it waited until January 14, 1895, during the middle of the First Sino-Japanese War, to do this. Just three months prior to its military victory in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan erected a marker on the islands to formally incorporate them as its territory. This decision was not made public until 1950, however. Four of the islands were subsequently borrowed and developed by the Koga family with the permission of the Japanese government.

History of Ming

Japanese scholars claim that neither China nor Okinawa 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. Prof. Emeritus Kentaro Ashida (芦田健太郎) 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 the "Stories of Foreign Countries" (外国列伝). Thus, China did not control the Senkaku Islands or Taiwan. However, this point is arguably irrelevant because the Qing Dynasty gained control of Taiwan and its surrounding islands in 1683, which was 39 years after the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

Beiyang warlord admission

In a testimonial in 1920, a diplomat from the Chinese Beiyang warlord government admitted that the islands belonged to the Yaeyama District of Okinawa prefecture. Taiwan and its surrounding islands were ceded to Japan in 1895 in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. However, China argues that Taiwan and its surrounding islands were returned to Chinese sovereignty after the World War II in 1945.Cairo Communiqué

United States occupation

Japan claims that after World War II, the islands came under the United States occupation of Okinawa. During this period, the United States and the Ryukyu Government administered the islands and the US Navy even used Kuba-jima and Taisho-jima as maneuver areas. In 1972, sovereignty over Okinawa, and arguably the surrounding islands, was handed back to Japan.

Japanese scholars point out that it would not have been difficult for the Republic of China (ROC) to occupy these islands in 1945, because the ROC had already incorporated Taiwan and the surrounding islands two months before the US military occupation was extended to the Yaeyama Islands. Thus, they claim that this proves the ROC's lack of willingness to assume authority over the islands. They also point to official Chinese publications that show the islands as part of Okinawa.

Taiwanese scholars reject Japan's claim, stating that the ROC government maintains sovereignty over the islands. They assert that when US forces were stationed on Taiwan during the Cold War, military maneuvers were periodically held which required the use of the islands as an aerial bombing target, and the US military applied each time to the ROC government, instead of to Japanese authorities, for authorization.

Taiwanese sources also argue that the 1954 ROC-US Mutual Defense Treaty contains wording implying that the ROC controlled the islands. The ROC government and the US later agreed to have US forces patrol the area several miles north of the island of Taiwan. Thus, the ROC had agreed to have US forces patrol the area around the islands.

Beginning of the dispute

A survey in 1968 found potential oil fields in the East China Sea, drawing attention to the islands. The PRC and ROC governments subsequently pressed their claims of sovereignty over them. The ROC officially claimed the islands for the first time on June 11, 1971, followed by the PRC on December 30. Japan responded by counter-claiming the islands.

Recent developments

  • 1988: The Japan Youth Association set up a lighthouse on the main island.
  • July 14, 1996: The Japan Youth Association builds a 5-m high, solar-powered, aluminum lighthouse on another island.
  • September 26, 1996: David Chan (陳毓祥), a Hong Kong protester, drowns while trying to swim to the main island with several companions.
  • October 7, 1996: Protesters plant the flags of the ROC and the PRC on the main island, but they were later removed by the Japanese authorities.
  • April 2002: The Japanese government leased Uotsuri and other islands from the private owners.
  • March 24, 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 Japanese authorities for illegal entry. The Japanese Foreign Ministry forwarded a complaint to the PRC government, but the PRC in turn demanded the release of the activists. They were then sent to Japan and deported from there. Japan subsequently banned anybody from landing on the islands without prior permission.
  • 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.
  • June 2005: The ROC dispatched a ROCN frigate into disputed waters (but did not go as far as the islands) 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.
  • March 17, 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, Japan

See also

References

  1. Kyodo News, March 17, 2006 (Japanese)

External links

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