Chinese-Japanese Conflict Heats Up
Xinhua News Agency
September 11, 2012
Japanese PM orders Self-Defense Forces fully prepared for emergency
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Noda said the uncertainties over Japan’s peripheral security environment rose to the highest level as the military activity of surrounding countries, including Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, China and Russia, became more active, thus the JSDF should monitor and analyze the countries closely.
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TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered Japan’s Self Defense Forces (JSDF) to be fully prepared for any emergency under the complex peripheral security environment at the Ministry of Defense Tuesday morning.
Noda reviewed the guards of honor of JSDF inside the Ministry of Defense, and then attended a senior commander meeting of JSDF, accompanied by the Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto.
Noda made a speech to about 180 senior commanders of JSDF at the meeting.
In the speech, Noda said the uncertainties over Japan’s peripheral security environment rose to the highest level as the military activity of surrounding countries, including Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, China and Russia, became more active, thus the JSDF should monitor and analyze the countries closely.
He particularly mentioned that China has been increasingly active in surrounding seas.
The Japanese government has exchanged the official contract on the purchase of Diaoyu Islands with Kurihara family whom the Japanese side called “the private owner” Tuesday morning, despite strong protest from China.
The Japanese government will pay the expense of 2.05 billion yen (26.15 million U.S. dollars) with government reserve funds to the Kurihara family, who claims to own the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
Demonstrating China’s undisputable sovereignty over the islands, two ships of the China Marine Surveillance (CMS) reached the waters around the islets Tuesday morning.
The CMS has drafted an action plan for safeguarding territorial sovereignty and would take actions pending the development of the situation.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura announced Monday afternoon that the Japanese government hopes the purchase would not undermine the overall bilateral relations with China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted quickly on Monday, saying Japan’s purchase of the islands is illegal and invalid and China firmly opposes the move.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on the sidelines of the APEC summit on Sunday, made clear China’s position on relations with Japan and on the Diaoyu Islands issue.
Hu pointed out that China-Japan relations had recently faced a severe situation due to the Diaoyu Islands issue.
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Kyodo News
September 11, 2012
Japan nationalizes Senkakus, provokes Chinese protest
TOKYO: The Japanese government on Tuesday nationalized the Senkaku Islands, provoking protests in China and Taiwan, which claim territorial rights over the uninhabited islets in the East China Sea.
Japan put the islands under state control by signing a contract with the private owner of three of the five main islands in the Senkaku group following Cabinet approval for the disbursement of 2.05 billion yen for the purchase from the reserve fund for the year through next March.
Protesters took to the streets of various Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei urging Japan in a regular news conference to abandon its “mistaken measure” and return to the track of negotiations to resolve the dispute.
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China Daily
September 12, 2012
Islands stolen by Japan
Japan has slammed the door on diplomacy by “nationalizing” Chinese territory.
Yet, the country has no legal grounds for taking control of the Diaoyu Islands and, for that reason, simply cannot deprive China of its sovereignty over them.
It’s high time that China resort to legal methods in these disputes. International jurisprudential evidence is irrefutable in its proof that China has sovereignty over the islands.
The Diaoyu Islands issue was settled after World War II. The United States has nonetheless managed to turn it into a complicated dispute.
The earliest historical records to show the islands are Chinese navigational documents dating to 1403. References to the Diaoyu Islands also occur in Chinese logs and maps from about the same time. For centuries the Diaoyu Islands were administered as part of Taiwan.
Japan took the Liu Chiu Islands, which Japan calls Okinawa, by force from China in 1874, when the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was at war with several countries. The Diaoyu Islands, though, remained under the administration of Taiwan. Following China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-95, the Qing government ceded Taiwan, including its subsidiary islands, to Japan.
That was reversed by the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations, which resulted in Taiwan being returned to China in 1945 at the end of World War II. The Japanese government accepted the terms of these documents, including one saying “that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa (as Taiwan was called before 1945), the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China”.
Article 2 of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, which was signed in 1951 by Japan and the allied powers, states: “Japan renounced all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Paracels.” Article 4 of a separate peace treaty signed in 1952 by Japan and the Republic of China declared that all agreements made between Japan and China before 1941 were null and void.
As stated above, it’s perfectly logical to conclude that the Diaoyu Islands, being part of the Taiwan territories, have been returned to China.
So where do the claims to the contrary come from?
In part from an illegal treaty the United States and Japan signed in San Francisco in 1951 in the absence of China, one of the victors in the war. Article 3 of the treaty wrongly assigned the Diaoyu Islands and other islets to the Liu Chiu Islands, which was then under the US’ control.
China has never recognized the San Francisco Treaty.
After 1972, when the US handed over the Diaoyu Islands, as well as the Liu Chiu Islands, to Japan under the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, Japan once again began to administer the islets. Even so, that agreement did not and could not recognize Japan’s control over the islands. The country is now trying to use its “nationalization” plan to pretend it has sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands.
Given the rampant rightist tendency seen in Japanese politics and the potential dangers Japan poses to its neighbors and the region at large, there is an imperative need to set the record straight.
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Xinhua News Agency
September 11, 2012
Chinese people, gov’t together on Diaoyu Islands
Angered by Japan’s so-called “purchase” of some of the Diaoyu Islands, a Chinese territory, people in China of various walks of life have expressed support for the Chinese government in introducing countermeasures.
Despite strong warnings and opposition voiced by top Chinese leaders, the Japanese government on Tuesday signed a contract with the Kurihara family, which Japan claims is the “private owner” of the Diaoyu Islands.
“Our tolerance should not be met with cruelty. And we should call stridently for the Diaoyu Islands and must not allow any country to forcibly occupy our territory,” said a netizen nicknamed “Dingxinran” in a webpost.
Some people also posted online a Japanese map drawn by the Japanese military in 1876 to prove that the Diaoyu Islands don’t belong to Japan.
“As a member of the Chinese nation, I resolutely and unconditionally support the Chinese government’s stance and countermeasures that aim to safeguard national dignity and sovereignty,” said another netizen.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Monday that China urges Japan to immediately revoke its wrong decision to “buy” the Diaoyu Islands and stop all actions that undermine China’s territorial sovereignty.
Otherwise, all consequences should be borne only by the Japanese side, according to Yang.
On the same day, the Chinese government announced the base points and baselines of the territorial waters of Diaoyu Islands, a move that further demonstrates China’s sovereignty.
China’s oceanic authority has recently improved its monitoring over far-sea territory including the Diaoyu Islands.
Gao Hong, an expert on Japan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday that China can use all necessary means to monitor the islands regularly, conduct patrols and offer protection to fishermen.
“Japan’s Self Defense Forces” of course, like the USI, pretend to protect against external threats, but it is Japan, with the help of the USA, fomenting disharmony with China by taking Chinese territory.
It should be remembered that Japan’s so-called “Self-Defense Forces” were involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq as part of the USA-led Coalition of the Killing.
Apparently, sending your troops thousands of miles away to commit a war of aggression that has killed over 1 million Iraqis based upon lies about Iraqi WMDs is considered “self-defense” by the Japanese.