Border dispute between Japan and PRC over Senkaku islands.

1. Diaoyu/Senkaku disputes
between Japan and
China:relations on the rocks.

2. Outline of Presentation
1) Historical origins of Diaoyu/Senkaku
disputes through some official
documents
2) The root causes of the dispute
3) The three scenarios of the
Diaoyu/Senkaku disputes in particular and
Sino-Japanese relations in general

3. Geographically, Diaoyu/Senkaku islands are located at
the northeast of Taiwan and on the voyage from China
to the Okinawa. (Japan)
They are close to important
shipping lanes, offer rich
fishing grounds and lie near
potential oil and gas reserves.
They are also in a
strategically significant
position, amid rising
competition between the US
and China for military primacy
in the Asia-Pacific region.

4. 11 billion barrels of oil in
East China Sea.
190 trillion cubic feet
of natural gas.

7. Historical origins of Diaoyu/Senkaku disputes
through official documents
According to Chinese sources the first mention of
the Diaoyu islands is in a 15th-century document
now held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Early sources tended to mention only the islands
location on the voyage to the Ryukyus from China
By the 17th century Chinese sources clearly
named the maritime boundary between the Diaoyu
islands and the Ryukyus as the Heishuigou
(‘Black Water Trench’).

8. Qing period (1644-1911) records
substantiate Chinese ownership of the
Diaoyu Islands prior to 1895.
After a number of Chinese defeats in the first
Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895),
The Meiji government, following a secret
cabinet decision in early 1895, promptly
incorporated the islands.

9. China was forced to sign the Treaty of
Shimonoseki (April 1895) and cede to
Japan “the island of Formosa (Taiwan)
together all islands belonging to said
island of Formosa.”

10. The Diaoyu islands are part of Taiwan
This is to say, Japan annexed the Diaoyu islands
as the war booty.

11. Why is the row so prominent now?

12. 2002 to 2012: the Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications paid the Kurihara family ¥25
million a year to rent Uotsuri, Minami-Kojima and
Kita-Kojima.
11 September 2012: the Japanese government
nationalized its control over islands by purchasing
them from the Kurihara family for ¥2.05 billion
(£16.4 million) .

13. II. In November 2013, China also
announced the creation of a new air-
defence identification zone, which
would require any aircraft in the zone -
which covers the islands - to comply
with rules laid down by Beijing.
I. China's Foreign Ministry
objected saying Beijing would not
"sit back and watch its territorial
sovereignty violated."

14. Mutual mistrust between China and Japan led to wrong
interpretation, which caused military response.

16. Japanese
government claims
to have
“discovered” the
islands, a terra
nullius belonging
to no one, in 1884.

18. What is Japan's claim?
oIt surveyed the islands for 10 years in the 19th Century and determined
that they were uninhabited. On 14 January 1895 Japan raised up a
sovereignty marker and formally incorporated the islands into Japanese
territory.

19. Why the Japanese government made the decision
to purchase and nationalize the Diaoyu/Senkaku
islands in September 2012 can be explained as
follows:
1) The rise of right-wing politicians and
conservative nationalism trying to gloss over
Japanese war history and overturn the
fundamental order after the Second World
War.
2) The rise of China and Japan’s
concern about it

22. Islands have been part of its territory since ancient
times, serving as important fishing grounds
administered by the province of Taiwan.
Taiwan was ceded to Japan in the Treaty of
Shimonoseki in 1895, after the Sino-Japanese war.
When Taiwan was returned in the Treaty of San
Francisco, China says the islands should have been
returned too.
* Separately, Taiwan also claims the islands.
What is China's claim?

24. A demonstration in
Zhengzhou, China, against
Japan's claim to the islands,
October 2010

25. After WWII, Japan renounced claims to a number of territories
in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco.
Senkaku islands, however, came under US trusteeship and were
returned to Japan in 1971 under the Okinawa reversion deal.
* Japan says China raised no objections to the San Francisco deal.

26. The Potsdam Declaration (26
Jul 1945) stipulated that:
"Japanese sovereignty shall be
limited to the islands of Honshu,
Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku
and such minor islands as we
determine."

27. When the US reformulated its global strategy and placed more
emphasis on the Pacific Asia, Japan has made full use of this
opportunity to fortify itself as America’s partner in East Asia and
stand up against China.
What is the role of the US?

28. Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for
21st Century Defense (2012) notes that the United
States "will of necessity rebalance toward the
Asia-Pacific region"
“As a Pacific nation that takes our Pacific
partnership seriously, the United States will
continue to build on our active and enduring
presence.”
– Secretary of State John Kerry

29. Three scenarios of Diaoyu / Senkaku
disputes between China and Japan:
1) A crisis management mechanism should
be established between the military forces
and maritime administrations jointly by
China and Japan, so as to prevent the
escalation of tensions, especially the
breakout of an unintended war between the
two countries.

30. 2) Chinese and Japanese leaders need to put
bilateral relations back and develop the
mutually beneficial strategic partnership in
issues like: FTA negotiations, climate change
and environmental cooperation, and non-
traditional security issues.

31. 3) The real and ultimate resolution of the
territorial dispute over Diaoyu/Senkaku
islands will take a long time only after
China, Japan and the US establish more
balanced great triangular relations and
substantial progress is made in regional
cooperation and community-building in
East Asia.

32. Thank You for Attention.