Japan Plan to Buy Islands Draws China’s Condemnation

An aerial picture from a P3C of Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces shows the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in Chinese and as Senkaku in Japanese, in the East China Sea. Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images

(Corrects spelling of island chain’s Chinese name in third
paragraph.)

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- A Japanese government plan to buy
uninhabited islands owned by a private investor provoked
condemnation from China, which also claims it owns the rocky
outcroppings, the latest flare-up in a dispute over territory
and resources in the East China Sea.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on July 7 said the government
is considering a purchase of the islands, Kyodo News reported.
China’s Foreign Ministry responded with a statement that the
islets belong to China and “can’t be bought or sold.”

The dispute over who controls the islands, known as Senkaku
in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, escalated in April after
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said he wanted to use public
money to buy them. Sovereignty over the area, which has undersea
natural gas and oil fields, has been a flash point between the
world’s second- and third-largest economies.

“Clearly the reason why the Senkaku Islands are a big bone
of contention is the potential for resources,” said Jeff
Kingston, head of the Asian Studies program at Temple University
in Tokyo. “Governor Ishihara has caused a headache for the
government and what they’re trying to do is engage in damage
control by getting the islands out of the grips of Ishihara,
who’s trying to politicize this for his own gain.”

Taiwan also claims the isles, which are about 150 miles
(240 kilometers) northeast of its capital, Taipei; 100 miles
northwest of the southernmost island in Japan’s Okinawa
prefecture; and 400 miles southeast of Shanghai. A Taiwan
government spokesperson on July 7 said the plan to buy the
islands is unacceptable, Japanese public broadcaster NHK
reported.

Taiwan, Vietnam

Japan and China are engaged in territorial disputes with
other countries as well. China is squabbling with the
Philippines and Vietnam over islands in the South China Sea,
while Japan and South Korea each claim ownership of rocky islets
that nearly provoked a 2006 naval clash.

Vietnam’s parliament last month passed a maritime law
reasserted sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands and
as many as 200 protesters marched in Hanoi yesterday, calling
for China to leave the area. The Philippines on July 5 filed a
protest against China’s establishment of a city called Sansha
covering several disputed island groups and atolls.

China and members of the Association of South Asian Nations
should continue negotiations over territorial claims in the
South China Sea, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
yesterday in Tokyo. Clinton didn’t comment on the dispute
between China and Japan.

A 2010 collision between a Chinese fishing vessel and
Japanese Coast Guard ships near the Senkaku Islands frayed ties
for months. The two countries have yet to implement a 2008
agreement to jointly develop the area’s undersea natural gas and
oil resources.

“There are many in the government who think that Ishihara
is playing a dangerous game politicizing the Senkaku Islands and
jeopardizing a rapprochement that has been going on,” Temple
University’s Kingston said. “Now the government is in this
embarrassing position of doing this thing they don’t want to do,
knowing that it’s stoking regional tensions.”