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Showing posts with label Diaoyu Islands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diaoyu Islands. Show all posts

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Japan's strategic offensive, from Diaoyu Islands to Nay Pyi Taw

Illustration: Liu Rui

Shinzo Abe's election has pushed the Diaoyu Islands crisis into the edge of all-out confrontation between China and Japan.

 While Japan's high-profile move on the Diaoyu Islands is a direct confrontation against its neighbor, its actions in Myanmar are a secret detour against China.

As the Diaoyu Islands dispute gripped the attention of China and the whole world, Japan's newly appointed Finance Minister Taro Aso visited Myanmar to write off its debt of 500 billion yen ($5.58 billion), followed by major financial groups covertly pushing into Myanmar's economic field.

In fields where China is also involved, Japanese financial groups, with their advanced technology, strong capital and national support, are in a race with Chinese enterprises.

They do not aim for profits at the moment, and some would rather suffer a loss.

This is not a healthy competition, but a vicious economic war which aims to drive out Chinese companies, control Myanmar's economy, and finally, cut off China's energy passageway to the Indian Ocean.

Soon after the US focused on hedging against China in Myanmar, Japan immediately started annihilating Chinese enterprises under the umbrella of the US' strategy.

China has three grand strategic projects in Myanmar - the Myitsone hydropower project, which has been forced into a total shutdown, the Monywa-Latpadantaung copper mine, where several public protests have taken place, and finally, the construction of an oil and gas pipeline between China and Myanmar, where recent signs have become increasingly disturbing.

Myanmar joins sea and land in the US' C-shaped encirclement of China, which includes the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, East Asia and South Asia.

After the US decided on an eastward strategic shift centered on encircling China, an East Asian alliance, with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam as the axis, promptly came into being and endangered vast areas in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

It is a fatal threat to China, which relies heavily on the sea for its trade and energy. Under such circumstances, Myanmar's vital strategic position is evident, which is why the US and Japan have concentrated on the country.

Due to the strong US-Japan alliance, it is very difficult for China to achieve a decisive breakthrough in the East China Sea and the South China Sea issues, while a westward focus may be the best solution.

However, Myanmar, one of the four westward passages, was seized initially by the US and Japan, which have launched a strategic offensive in what seems like a showdown posture.

Through the powerful intervention of the US and Japan, great changes have taken place in Myanmar's political situation, and Myanmese military forces' large-scale attack on the Kachin Independence Army is only one event that shows this. 

Thus, Myanmar has become the arena where China, the US and Japan play out a strategic game. We hope China can develop a proper strategy to deal with the situation in the new century.

After the US' public announcement of its eastward strategic shift, some Chinese have given up their fantasies about the US.

 A number of Chinese have another fantasy of China uniting with Japan to isolate the US, as Japan's national strategy aims to keep abreast with China and the US in its politics.

But the US' usefulness is much greater than China's, and will be for quite some time. Japan will align with the US strategic direction in this period, rather than move closer to China.

I suggest strategy planning departments deploy unified strategic actions with regards to Myanmar and the Diaoyu Islands from the perspective of the overall Sino-Japanese duel.

On the issue of Myanmar, China should support the normal economic activities of Chinese enterprises with State power, as Japan has done. As for the Diaoyu Islands, China must leave Japan in a defensive position by regaining the initiative instantly.

By Dai Xu
The author is director of China Institute for Marine Security and Cooperation Studies. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Related post:
Who owns Diaoyu Islands?

Monday 14 January 2013

China sends fighters to counter Japan's war planes


China’s Ministry of National Defense has denounced Japanese military aircraft disrupting the routine patrols of Chinese administrative aircraft.

At a press conference, an official with the ministry confirmed that China sent two J-10 fighters to the East China Sea, after a Y-8 aircraft was closely followed by two Japanese F-15 fighters. The Y-8 aircraft was patrolling the southwest airspace of the East China Sea oil platform on Thursday.

According to the official, the two J-10 fighters were sent to monitor the Japanese fighter jets tailing the Y-8 as well as another Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted in the same airspace. The official said Japanese military aircraft have been increasingly active in closely scouting Chinese aircraft.

The official said the Chinese military will be on high alert and China will resolutely protect the security of its air defense force and uphold its legitimate rights. The official also called for the Japanese side to respect relevant international laws and to prevent security disputes by taking effective measures.

Chinese Foreign Ministry:
 
China reaffirms routine military flights over East China Sea
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comments at a press briefing on Friday, responding to media reports that Japan deployed fighter jets to head off a number of Chinese military planes over the East China Sea on Thursday. Full story >>

China urges Japan to pursue peaceful development
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has urged Japan to draw lessons from history and pursue a path of peaceful development. Hong Lei made the remarks at a regular press conference on Thursday, expressing China’s stance towards Japan’s plan to raise its defense budget in 2013. Full story >>

Japan responsible for plight with China
A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry on Friday urged the Japanese government to "face reality" in Sino-Japanese relations. Spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily press briefing that Japan single-handedly pushed Sino-Japanese relations into a difficult situation. Full story >>

Ministry of National Defense:
 
Japanese military aircraft disrupting the routine patrols of Chinese administrative aircraft

At a press conference, an official with the ministry confirmed that China sent two J-10 fighters to the East China Sea after a Y-8 aircraft was closely followed by two Japanese F-15 fighters as it patrolled the southwest airspace of the East China Sea oil platform on Thursday. Full story >>

Related stories


 Japan tracer bullets will bring war closer


According to Japanese media, the Japanese government is considering permitting Japanese self-defense forces' fighter jets to fire tracer bullets as warning shots against Chinese surveillance planes which have "infringed" upon Japan's "territorial airspace" over the Diaoyu Islands.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday that China has consistently opposed Japan's infringement upon China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands. China "remains vigilant against attempts to escalate the tensions."

The Chinese spokesman's statement is not enough to express the Chinese people's strong determination to fight back against Japan's unscrupulous action.

We believe that if Japan starts using tracer bullets, it will definitely trigger a military confrontation between China and Japan. Chinese people will certainly ask the government to send naval and air forces to retaliate.

Tracer bullets were used by Japan to warn Soviet Union surveillance aircraft above the Okinawa Prefecture in 1987. However, the relationship between the Soviet Union and Japan was one of war and invasion. The Diaoyu Islands are a typical disputed area.

We believe that China is carefully assessing plans to deploy combat aircraft to the Diaoyu Islands due to the imbalance between China's surveillance aircraft and Japan's fighter jets. If Japan uses tracer bullets, Chinese fighter jets are bound to be sent to the Diaoyu Islands.

China's replacing surveillance aircraft with fighter jets does not mean they will conduct military operations there. These are upgrades of China's ability to defend its sovereignty in the face of Japan's provocations. All of East Asia would face tension in that scenario, but we have no choice. We do not wish to begin a war with Japan. However, if Japan insists on provocations, we will follow it through to the end.

If the Chinese government does not earnestly prepare for it, it will certainly suffer huge political losses. The public wouldn't understand that and they would not accept any interpretations by the government.

China may fall into military conflict with Japan eventually. We hope we can continue our peaceful development, but our risk management strategies are more complex due to various pressures.

There is little room for concessions. Therefore, let us abandon all hesitation and seriously prepare for mutual warnings and confrontation with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands. If the situation goes awry, we must make Japan pay more of a price than China.

The Diaoyu Islands dispute will test the Chinese government's leadership for a long time. But we should have confidence: our rival is a bully which can even bear US military occupation. As long as we keep tough, we will not lose this test of wills. - Global Times



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Dispute with China takes toll on Japan 

Thursday 10 January 2013

Dispute with China takes toll on Japan

The last time a dispute between Japan and China blew up in 2010 over eight uninhabited islands, the economic fallout lasted less than a month. This time, the spat is prolonging a recession in the world’s third-largest economy.

Chinese activists carrying Chinese and Taiwanese national flags walk on Diaoyu Islands

Four months after Chinese consumers staged a boycott of Japanese products over the islands in the East China Sea, sales of Japanese autos in China have yet to recover, Chinese factories began to favor South Korean component suppliers, and the U.S. has displaced China as Japan’s largest export market.

“The spats have become increasingly costly as Japan’s dependence on China as an export market has risen,” said Tony Nash, a Singapore-based managing director at IHS Inc., which provides research and analytics for industries including financial companies. “Nationalism around the issue has resulted in lower demand for Japanese products in China and even Chinese firms sourcing products from Korean suppliers.”

As China’s confidence in asserting its territorial claims has grown, and trade between the two nations has tripled since 2000 to more than $300 billion, the commercial cost of failing to resolve the dispute keeps rising. The latest flare-up came after property developer Kunioki Kurihara sold three of the islands to the Japanese government for 2.05 billion yen ($23 million) in September, a transaction Xi Jinping, the new head of the Chinese Communist Party, called “a farce.”

Growth Cut

The fallout from the sale may have cut Japan’s growth in the latest quarter by about one percentage point, JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated. That would be enough to keep the economy in recession after two quarters of contraction up to Sept. 30. Gross domestic product may have shrunk an annualized 0.5 percent in the final three months of 2012, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The standoff over the islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China contributed to declines in Japan’s shipments to China for six months through November. Japan’s industrial output fell 1.7 percent in November, to the lowest level since the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake.

With each round of political disputes, the economic effect has grown. When then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited a Tokyo shrine where war criminals are among those honored in 2005, Chinese people and politicians protested. Yet trade between the two rose more than 12 percent that year.

Things got worse in 2010, when a Chinese fishing boat and a Japanese Coast Guard vessel collided in contested waters. China stopped granting export licenses to Japan for rare earth metals, necessary for automobile and electronics industries. The licenses were resumed about a week later after Japan released the detained captain of the vessel.

Biggest Effect

This year’s row has had the biggest effect so far, said Professor June Teufel Dreyer, a specialist in Chinese politics at the University of Miami in Florida. After the Japanese government bought the three islands, angry Chinese boycotted Japanese products and smashed Japanese shops in China.

“This has really changed things, unquestionably; it is not a blip,” said Dreyer. “China will continue to push its claims to sovereignty until Beijing gets what it wants.”

The islands offer the prospect of rich fishing grounds, potential oil reserves and a strategic military outpost in the sea between China, Japan and Taiwan. That’s overshadowed economic ties that Jesper Koll, head of equity research at JPMorgan in Tokyo, called “a match made in heaven.”

“Japan has intellectual property, brands and capital, while China has people, markets and purchasing power,” said Koll, in an interview.

Ishihara’s Offer

The latest spat began in April when then-Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said he planned to use public money to purchase Kurihara’s islands. Ishihara, 80, is a longstanding critic of China, so the national government stepped in to buy the islands instead, in a failed attempt to defuse Chinese anger.

China’s official Xinhua news agency on Dec. 2 criticized the U.S. Senate’s approval of an amendment to show the islands fall under a U.S.-Japan defense treaty, calling it a “disturbing message” to the world that the Senate is seeking an escalation of tensions between China and Japan.

“The row has changed the landscape of China-Japan relations,” said Taylor Fravel, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in Chinese politics. “As a territory dispute, it’s prone to spirals of escalation.”

Election Win

The election victory of Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which returned to power in a landslide victory in December, has further stoked the conflict. In its manifesto, the LDP proposed strengthening the nation’s military and said it would consider stationing officials on the islands, prompting an editorial in the China Daily newspaper on Nov. 26 that described the manifesto as “dangerous.”

Two days before the election, China sent an 11-page report to the United Nations arguing that the geology of the continental shelf makes the islands a natural part of China.

Japan yesterday said the government summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest the presence of four surveillance ships near the islands. China responded that the ships were conducting normal duties around Chinese territory, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a briefing in Beijing.

Japan’s Defense Ministry made a budget request Jan. 7 for extra PAC-3 missile interceptors and upgrades for F-15 fighter planes, and will seek to raise next fiscal year’s defense budget by about 120 billion yen, reversing the downward trend of the last decade.

Economies Lose

“As Japan’s politics turn decisively to the right, more and frequent spats between Japan and China are expected,” said Liu Li-Gang, chief economist for Greater China at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. who used to work for the World Bank. “Both economies will lose in the end. Japan will lose a big market, and China will not be able to leverage on Japan’s technology and investment for growth.”

Japanese automakers’ share of the Chinese market slumped to 14 percent in November from about 23 percent before September, Xu Changming, a director at China’s State Information Center, said on Nov. 29. Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Japan’s biggest carmaker, said in November that output in China fell the most in at least a decade, while Nissan Motor Co. (7201) reported the biggest output decline since at least 2009.

All Nippon Airways Co. (9202), Japan’s largest airline, had 46,000 seat cancellations on flights between September and November because of the dispute, spokesman Ryosei Nomura said. The carrier forecast the row will cut sales by about 10 billion yen.

Uniqlo Stores

Fearing attacks from anti-Japan protesters, Fast Retailing Co. (9983), seller of the Uniqlo casual wear brand, temporarily shut 60 of its 169 stores in China from Sept. 14-24, according to spokeswoman Yukie Sakaguchi.

“We closed stores in areas that could have been dangerous, such as near the Japanese embassy in Beijing,” she said.

Anti-Japan protesters attacked three department stores in Hunan province run by Heiwado Co. (8276), a supermarket operator based in Shiga prefecture, central Japan, forcing the company to close its stores there for more than a month and incur losses of around 500 million yen, according to spokesman Tomoharu Tsuda.
“They smashed windows, broke shutters and wrecked products in the stores,” Tsuda said. “This could well happen again.”

Oil Resources

While Japan has administrative control over the islands, they were largely ignored from the end of World War II until 1969, when a United Nations commission said the surrounding seabed may be “extremely rich” in oil. That brought sovereignty claims in the following years by China, Japan and Taiwan.

“As existing resources are exhausted, the importance of oil and gas resources in the South China Sea will increase and that’s one of the key reasons why this issue is not going away,” said Hao Hong, managing director of research at Bank of Communications Co., China’s fifth-largest lender by assets. China is “stronger than Japan militarily and economically.”

Underlying the border dispute is a history of strained diplomatic ties between the two countries dating back to the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and atrocities carried out in the country by some Japanese troops.

With political capital to be gained by both sides from courting nationalist fervor -- Abe visited the same shrine as Koizumi in October -- lawmakers may manipulate the row to fit their agendas despite the economic costs, said Ding Xueliang, a professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who teaches contemporary Chinese politics.

Chinese Anger

“Japan is always a convenient target for the Chinese government to use to divert domestic anger,” Ding said. “Compared to the political values, the trade values with Japan are secondary.”

China would be willing to accept a 30 percent reduction in trade with Japan before it would back down, whereas Japan’s pain threshold is about 20 percent, Ding estimated.

One possible course follows the policy proposed by the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, said Martin Schulz, a senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo.

“China knows it will never get the islands, and Japan knows that China will never let go,” said Schulz, who has done research for the Bank of Japan. “Deng Xiaoping’s stance from the 1970s, to keep it quiet until joint economic cooperation in the area becomes possible, remains the only solution.”

U.S. Relations

As the current stand-off pushes Japan and China to reduce reliance on each other, U.S. relations with both sides could benefit, according to Liu at ANZ Bank.

“The U.S. will become more important to both China and Japan and will play a big balancing role between Japan and China,” Liu said. “Japan may increase its investment in Vietnam and other economies” in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Exports from Japan to 10-member Asean grew nearly 50 percent in the decade through 2011, according to finance ministry data.

“Japanese investors will accelerate their strategy of diversifying investments to the rest of Asia,” said Tao Dong, head of Asia economics excluding Japan at Credit Suisse Group AG in Hong Kong. “We see increased cases of Japanese investment in Vietnam and the Philippines and there’s lots more to come.”

Acquisition Spending

Japanese companies have spent or plan to spend more than $10 billion since January 2011 on acquisitions in the Asean bloc, data compiled by Bloomberg show. In November, Kirin Holdings Co. bid $2.2 billion for Singapore-based Fraser & Neave Ltd.’s food and beverages unit.

China, which also has disagreements with Asean nations over islands in the South China Sea, was warned last month by Vietnam not to apply economic force to settle disputes.

“Japanese business influence in China will start to decline” as China invites more European and U.S. investment, ANZ’s Liu said in an interview in Tokyo. “Japanese firms’ space in China could be limited in the future.”

Still, the legacy of decades of investment in China make it unlikely that Japanese companies will withdraw, said Nash at IHS.

“This is not an either-or issue,” Nash wrote in an e- mail. “Firms will stay in China and they will invest in Southeast Asia and other places. It’s hard for Japanese exports to move totally away from China and it’s hard for Chinese OEMs to move totally away from Japanese components.”

Japanese companies such as Nissan employed 1.6 million people at subsidiaries in China in the fiscal year ended March 2011, according to the Japanese trade ministry.

As Richard Koo, chief economist at Nomura Research Institute Ltd., wrote in a Dec. 11 report: “No matter how unpardonable China’s behavior over the issue of Senkaku Islands may be, as a practical matter Japan needs to proceed carefully given the magnitude of its Japanese investments in the country.”

Bloomberg

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Japan's buying Diaoyu Islands provokes China to strike back

Saturday 15 December 2012

Japan's war planes F-15 fighter jets against a Chinese suveilance plane over Diaoyu Islands


This handout picture taken by the Japan Coast Guard on Thursday shows a Chinese government plane flying near the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. Japan scrambled fighter jets after the Chinese plane entered airspace over the islands at the center of a dispute between Tokyo and Beijing. Photo: AFP

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that it is "normal" for a Chinese marine surveillance plane to patrol the airspace over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets to the area.



According to a statement on the website of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China's Haijian B-3837 aircraft reached the airspace over the Diaoyu Islands at 10 am Thursday, joining the flotilla of marine surveillance ships Haijian-50, Haijian-46, Haijian-66 and Haijian-137 to patrol the area.

The SOA said that during the patrol, the flotilla stated the Chinese government's position on the islets to the Japanese vessels, demanding they leave the area. On its website, it also posted two photos of the islands shot from the airplane.

The aircraft is a twin-engine propeller plane used for surveillance or monitoring of fishing activities.

The incident prompted Japan's military to scramble eight F-15 fighter jets, Japan's Defense Ministry said. Japanese officials later said the Chinese aircraft had left the area, Reuters reported.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said it was the first time that a Chinese plane had entered "Japanese airspace" since Japan started recording similar incidents in 1958, Kyodo News reported. Japan later protested to China over the incident.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular press briefing Thursday that it's normal for China's marine surveillance planes to fly in the airspace over the Diaoyu Islands, as Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets are China's inherent territory.

"China demands Japan stop its illegal activities in the waters and airspace of the Diaoyu Islands," Hong stated.

Han Zhiqiang, charge d'affaires at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, said China hadn't accepted the Japanese side's diplomatic representation over the incident, the China News Service reported.

Liu Jiangyong, a vice dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that after the US handed Okinawa over to Japan in 1972, Tokyo brought the Diaoyu Islands into its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

"Sending a plane to the area was a breakthrough in terms of challenging Japan's ADIZ, which was arbitrarily drawn up by Tokyo a long time ago," said Liu, noting that the struggle over the Diaoyu Islands would enter a new phase following China's success in carrying out routine patrols in the waters of the islets.

Liu also highlighted the increasing risk in terms of conflicts brought about by air confrontations.

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Saturday 22 September 2012

U.S. has responsibility to rein unruly allies for Asia-Pacific stability

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Sunday began his three-nation Asia-Pacific tour, during which he will pay his first visit as Pentagon chief to China to deepen military ties, a visit overshadowed by rising tensions in the region.

To prevent the tense situation from further escalation, the U.S. government should take the responsibility to rein in its unruly allies in the region including Japan and the Philippines.

Washington should discourage Japan's provocations and rectify its own wrong position of applying the U.S.-Japan security treaty to China's Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. It also should warn Manila against making further provocations in the South China Sea, and urge it to return to the negotiating table.

When Panetta made remarks before reporters aboard ahead of his landing in Tokyo on Sunday evening, the first stop of his trip, the U.S. apparently was attempting to play a "detached" arbitrator of the territorial disputes, a role that hadn't been invited by any concerning parties.

Panetta said, "I am concerned that when these countries engage in provocations of one kind or another over these various islands, that it raises the possibility that a misjudgement on one side or the other could result in violence, and could result in conflict."

He even alarmed that provocations over the territorial disputes could blow up into a war unless governments exercised more restraint.


To be frank, the U.S. isn't qualified to behave as a judge for the disputes, because it hasn't played a constructive role in the process.

Instead, it shoulders certain historical responsibilities for the chronic disputes, and has, more or less, fanned relevant countries' provocative moves with its biased words or actions and added instability to the region.

Both Japan and the Philippines have been making reckless provocations against China this year in an attempt to obtain undeserved territorial gains in the East China Sea and South China Sea, emboldened by the U.S. "Pivot to Asia" policy, which has featured increased military deployment and involvement in the region.

In the past week, the world witnessed one of the most blatant acts of sabotaging Asian peace and stability by Japan, the staunchest ally of the U.S. in the region, with its completion of the so-called "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands that are inherently part of China's sovereign territory. China totally rejects Japan's act of theft, and is taking necessary steps to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

On the dispute, Washington cannot shake off its responsibility for sowing the seeds of conflict. The U.S., through a backroom deal with Japan in 1971, transferred the administration of Ryukyu Islands (known as Okinawa today) and Diaoyu Islands, which were then under the U.S. trusteeship after World War II, to Japan. China has firmly opposed this deal from the very beginning.

Earlier this year, the Philippines, partially encouraged by U.S. support, also sparked a tense standoff with China in the South China Sea by sending a naval ship to harass Chinese fishermen operating legally in China's territorial waters around the Huangyan Islands.


Panetta's China visit, on the bright side, symbolizes the continuation of a good momentum in the U.S.-China relations, which feature regular high-level dialogues and exchanges of visit by senior political and military leaders.

The visit was reciprocal to the one paid by his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie to the Pentagon in May.

The visits have helped increase mutual understanding and advance the China-U.S. cooperation partnership and military-to-military ties.

On the other side, due to the current rising tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, the success of Panetta's visit will be judged by how he will reassure Beijing that Washington is willing to do more things conducive to regional peace and stability, which are now threatened by some of the U.S. allies.

The U.S. should understand that, if it continues to allow its allies to fish in troubled waters in the Asia Pacific and let the tensions spin out of control, no countries in the region can escape unscathed.

The U.S. must know better than other countries what it should do to benefit Asia-Pacific stability. 


By Zhi Linfei (Xinhua)
Related posts:

Who owns Diaoyu Islands?

Who owns the South China Sea islets in the eyes of the world?   

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Japan should drop its sense of superiority and tricks over China, Asia

Sept. 18 - Eighty-one years have passed since the Japanese invasion of China's northeast. But now, it is time for Japan to drop its sense of superiority regarding China and Asia in general.

Japan has to recognize that China is no longer weak and poor as it was in the 1930s, when it suffered great disasters brought by Japanese militarism. The balance of power between the two countries has drastically changed.

Sept. 18, 1931 is a day of disgrace in Chinese history, as it marks the day Japan launched an invasion of China's northeast and occupied the whole region four months later. The incident was followed by Japan's invasion of Pacific Asia in 1941, leading to one of the greatest disasters in the region.

The anniversary this year is quite different from before, as it coincides with Japan's "purchase" of part of the Diaoyu Islands, triggering fierce anti-Japan sentiment in China.

Japan's arrogance and provocation regarding the Diaoyu Islands is in line with its complex formed over one century ago, when it proclaimed superiority over China and Asia.

The two countries became rivals over the last 500 years, with Japan catching up with and defeating China in the late 19th century. Even its defeat in World War II could not break its sense of superiority, as Japan considered China's victory to be a present from the United States and the Soviet Union, turning a blind eye to the Chinese people's heroic resistance.

Japan has been heavily influenced by China and learned a great deal from Chinese culture. China enjoyed comprehensive superiority over its neighbor in all fields, including military strength, at that time.

However, China experienced decline since the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), while Japan rose as a world power in the late 1860's, when the country completely reformed its political and social structure by using European powers as models.

During the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted a policy of breaking away from Asia and merging with Europe. It viewed China at that time as an antiquated and decaying country.

Its fear of China died with Japan's overwhelming victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). The defeat also obliterated China's first attempt to modernize.

Japan subsequently established its superiority over China, both in actual strength and in mentality, as it no longer viewed China as a teacher.

During its expansion, Japan forced China to cede Taiwan in 1895 and annexed the Korean Peninsula in 1910. In the early 1940s, Japanese aggression saw little resistance in Asia and reached its peak after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Japanese militarists called for a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" in the 1930s, attempting to create a bloc led by the Japanese and free of Western powers.

Although Japanese militarists and war criminals' pipe dreams ended with the country's unconditional surrender to Allied powers, Japan's sense of superiority continued due to the U.S. desire to contain the Soviet Union and China.

But 60 years after World War II, the situation has completely changed. China has maintained rapid economic development and in 2010 surpassed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. The strength of China's national defense has grown accordingly.

Japan is now suffering from a long-term economic downturn, along with an aging population.

China's rise has touched the nerves of some Japanese, who have resorted to tricks to disturb China's peaceful development. This may be the cause of the tension experienced after a short friendly period in the 1980s.

The present China is not the same as the China of years past. Japan should face the situation, drop its obsolete sense of superiority and take a constructive attitude to solve disputes.

This is the only way to achieve common development in both countries and Asia as a whole.

 By Xinhua writer Ren Ke

Saturday 8 September 2012

Japan's buying Diaoyu Islands provokes China to strike back

China should strike back over sale: experts


Analysts Friday slammed Japan's plan to nationalize the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea as provocations which would further trash Sino-Japanese relations, and called on the Chinese government to take corresponding measures to counter Japan's scheme.

This video image, taken by the Japan Coast Guard on Aug 15, and released on Aug 27 shows a Chinese boat carrying Hong Kong activists after landing on the disputed island called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese in the East China Sea.

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun paper reported that Japan is scheduled to hold a cabinet meeting on Monday to officially "nationalize" the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday.

The Japanese government will sign a deal with the so-called private owners on Tuesday to purchase the islands. And the Japanese government believes that putting the Diaoyu Islands under state ownership at an early date could minimize the backlash from China, said the report.

The paper also noted that the actions of Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who had pushed strongly for the island purchase, had helped drive the state toward the purchase.

Qu Xing, director of the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times that by buying the islands, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration is attempting to reinforce Japan's claim of sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands.

"The repeated provocations have greatly undermined Sino-Japanese relations," said the expert.

"We should resort to corresponding countermeasures to strike back against Japan's unilateral move. Japan is making their assertion by legal means. Accordingly, China could also reinforce our claims of sovereignty over the islands through legal means," said Qu.

According to the Kyodo News Agency, Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said that Noda is unlikely to hold summit talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the sidelines of the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Vladivostok, Russia, indicating that formal talks would not be appropriate given renewed territorial rows.

Gemba added that informal and "spontaneous" exchanges may take place, the report said.

Wang Ping, a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Sino-Japanese relations are bound to be further undermined if Tokyo continues to inflame the situation.

"Japan's national interests as well as its strategic interests in East Asia and the West Pacific will also be hurt. It should better recognize the consequences of its moves," warned Wang.

The impact of the diplomatic rows between the two countries have already extended to the sphere of economic ties.

Reuters quoted Toshiyuki Shiga, a senior executive of Japanese auto maker Nissan, as saying that Japanese car manufacturers were having difficulty in holding big, outdoor promotion campaigns, which may have hurt August sales.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday that in order to change the current situation, Japan must immediately stop encroaching upon China's territorial sovereignty.

China is Japan's largest trading partner, while Japan is the fourth largest trading partner of China.

Though Japan relies much more on its trade with China than China does Japan, economic friction is a double-edged sword, Qu said.

"The adverse political climate will definitely affect economic relations. But smashing Japanese cars and boycotting Japanese goods don't help resolve the problems," said Qu, calling for the public to remain rational.

Separately, Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou Friday inspected the Pengjia Islet, which is located 156 kilometers from the Diaoyu Islands. He made a speech in front of a monument on the islet and praised those who have helped to protect the Diaoyu Islands, reported the Xinhua News Agency.

Responding to a question about Ma's visit, Hong Lei said Friday that all Chinese, including those from both sides of the Taiwan Straits, are responsible for safeguarding the sovereignty of the islands.

By Jin Jianyu and agencies contributed to this story

 

 

Taiwan warns Japan against nationalising islands


Pengchia:  Taiwan’s president used a high-profile visit to a Taiwanese islet on Friday to warn Japan against making any attempts to nationalise islands that are part of a disputed chain in the East China Sea.

Escorted by warplanes and naval vessels, President Ma Ying-jeou flew by military helicopter to Taiwan’s Pengchia Islet, which lies off northern Taiwan, only about 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of the disputed chain.

The chain — known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China — is controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan, and has been a key part of simmering regional tensions over rival territorial claims. Japan’s government reportedly is planning to buy several of the islands from their private Japanese owners.

Analysts say Ma chose the Taiwanese islet to make his well-measured gesture to raise international attention without further aggravating tensions.


South China Sea. Agencies

Disputes have flared over island chains in the East China and South China seas, rich fishing grounds with potentially lucrative oil and gas reserves.

But diplomatically isolated Taiwan — which China claims a part of its own territory 63 years after the two sides split amid civil war — has been largely left out of the spotlight.

Ma called on the East China Sea chain’s three claimants — Taiwan, China and Japan — to put aside their disputes and hold dialogues to jointly develop the rich resources there. He suggested bilateral or trilateral talks “to resolve the issue in a peaceful way.”

Ma also asked commanders at two Taiwan-controlled islets in South China Sea’s Pratas and Spratly island chains to strengthen guards. Those chains are claimed by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia.

“Ma has tried to avoid provoking tension, but as Taiwan’s leader, he must make a gesture even though the impact may be limited,” said Lo Chih-cheng, a political scientist at Taipei’s Soochow University.

While Taiwanese media were generally skeptical about the visit’s impact, some say Ma’s trip may manage to rebut Beijing’s appeal for a united front with Taiwan over the disputes. Many Taiwanese fear Beijing may be using its warming economic ties with Taiwan in recent years to further its goal of unifying with the self-ruled democratic island.

“The mainland is trying to create the false scenario of cross-Strait cooperation in the East and South China” seas, Taiwan’s China Times said in an editorial. - AP

No let-up in protests over Diaoyu Islands


By CHOW HOW BAN hbchow@thestar.com.my/Asia News Network

There have been protests on many fronts after the move on Monday by Japanese government to buy the islands from their “owners”.

CHINESE actress Li Bingbing became the latest ordinary citizen to publicly show her outrage against Japan over its claim of the disputed Diaoyu Islands (known in Japan as Senkaku Islands).

The Golden Horse Best Actress award winner turned down an invitation to attend the premiere of her latest film, Resident Evil: Retribution, in Tokyo on Monday in protest of the move by the Japanese government to buy the islands from their “owners”.

“The premiere in Tokyo was an important event for this film because it was the first premiere around the world. During the shoot, it was already decided that all the production crew should go for the Tokyo premiere,” she said.

“I do not like to break an appointment but after what had happened to the Diaoyu Islands, I did not feel like going. It is something I cannot stand and I thank the film company for their understanding,” Li was quoted by the Chinese media as saying on Thursday.

Two weeks ago, two Chinese men, aged 23 and 25, were detained for stopping the car of the Japanese Ambassador to China, Uichiro Niwa in downtown Beijing.

The duo allegedly emerged from their car and pulled the Japanese flag off Niwa’s car when the ambassador was on his way back to the Japanese embassy.

Another man was issued a warning for blocking Niwa’s car.

Earlier last month, hundreds of Chinese protesters took to the streets in Shenzhen and Hangzhou and called on the Chinese government to protect the islands, following an incident where 10 Japanese nationalists swam to the islands in East China Sea in response of a similar landing by seven Chinese activists.

Some Chinese protesters also surrounded the embassy in Beijing and the Japanese consulate office in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

Two senior citizens who threw eggs at the embassy were persuaded to leave, while another demonstrator was stopped by the police when he attempted to enter the premises.

Other demonstrators held a 7m-long banner expressing their indignation over Japan’s detention of the Chinese activists who landed on the islands.

Last Monday, Kyodo News Agency reported that Tokyo was in the final stages of reaching a deal to buy the islands by the end of this month.

Japanese television images showed that a team of surveyors dispatched by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara was surveying the shoreline and waters around the uninhabited isles.

The surveyors then released the outcome of their investigation, detailing the geographic composition of the islands.

Apparently, Ishihara called on the Japanese government to build a harbour in the area.

It was reported that the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda had agreed to pay two billion yen (RM79mil) for the islands.

The controversial islands are counter claimed by China and Taiwan.

China and Taiwan claim that the islands have been a part of Chinese territory since at least 1534 until Japan took brief control of it during the first Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895), while Japan has rejected claims that the islands were under China’s control prior to 1895.

In its editorial, China Daily warned that Japan was dicing with danger of leading the Sino-Japanese relations to their worse path.

“Japan is escalating tensions between itself and China. Our protests, be it official or civil, have fallen on deaf ears with the Japanese government.

“The deal for the islands was signed just five days after a letter from Japanese Prime Minister Noda to Chinese President Hu Jintao was delivered in Beijing on Aug 31. Noda was then said to have talked about lowering tensions between the two countries.

“The Noda administration now lacks credibility. They said they wanted to maintain and manage the islands in a peaceful manner but the islets are not part of Japan’s territory,” it said.

The newspaper said while China had kept its word to seek common ground on the islands and to maintain peace in the area, Japan had no longer shared the same goal.

China had failed to understand Japan’s diplomatic strategy, after all, and should re-look into its stand on the issue, it added.

Xinhua news agency slammed the islets purchase deal, saying that it would put to test Japan’s credibility over an historical commitment made in 1978 friendship treaty between Japan and China to resolve the issue.

Renmin University’s Centre for East Asia Studies director Huang Dahui said the pressure from the Japanese elections and fears of China’s economic development were reasons for the move.

“Japan is playing a two-faced game with China. What Ishihara and Noda are trying to do share the same purpose, which is to nationalise the Diaoyu Islands. China should strongly protest,” he told Global Times

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