TENSIONS MOUNT BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN OVER DISPUTED ISLANDS

July 10, 2012

The Japanese call them the Senkaku Isles, the Chinese the Diaoyu or Diaoyutai Islands and they have been disputed since the 19th century. In 1885 Japan reconsidered its intention to claim the islands, because of their proximity and associations with China, but the first Sino-Japanese War gave it the opportunity to ignore the sensitivities of the Qing Empire and annex them, declaring that they had been unclaimed (terra nullius). The islands were formally ceded, together with the island of Formosa (Taiwan) at the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. A few years later a Japanese business man developed a bonito processing plant on the islands which continued to operate until the Second World War. When Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces in 1945, the treaty of Shimonoseki was rescinded and the islands passed to American control, which only formally ended in 1972. The Japanese government are now leasing the islands from the Kurihara family, who had purchased them from the Tatsushiros in the 1970s.

One of the disputed islands

Japan is now making waves by stating that it is considering buying the islands from the Kuriharas. The islands are uninhabited, but blessed with fishing stock and more importantly, offshore gas and oil reserves. Japan, claims that China and Taiwan have only expressed an interest in the archipelago since the deposits were confirmed in the late sixties. The nationalistic Tokyo Governor, Shintaro Ishihara, has already been actively raising money for the purchase and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's recent counter proposal to buy the islands was supposed to soften the blow with regards to China and Taiwan. This was not going to be very likely and has raised the tension levels considerably.

There have been some spectacular and highly successful land purchases in history. The USA in particular has bought or given compensation for many of its territories, notably the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803 and the Alaska Purchase from the Russian Empire in 1867. The problem with this particular case is that Japan would not be paying China (and/or Taiwan) for the purchase, but its own nationals. Offering to compensate China, on the other hand, would be weakening its claim: a silly move when it already has the upper hand. Besides, Japan would not have the sort of money a nation would want for real estate with views overlooking prospective gas and oil rigs. No, it would not... but China certainly would and being at a disadvantage, it would have much to gain by doing so. There you have it; do I hear any offers?