Japan maintains a group of eight islands off the coast of the Republic of China, better known as Taiwan, called the Senkaku in Japanese. These islands are claimed by both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China, which has been trying to incorporate the island of Taiwan into its territory.
The Senkaku Islands, also known as Diaoyu in Chinese or Pinnacle in Englishhave been claimed since the late 1960s by Taiwan, which considers them part of the Toucheng environment in Yilan County; and by China for the simple fact that it claims that Taiwan. Since 1895, Japan has controlled the archipelago, whose five main islands are Uotsuri-jima (Diaoyu Dao in Chinese), Kuba-jima (Huangwei Yu), Minami Kojima (Nanxiao Dao), Kita Kojima (Beixiao Dao) and Taish- jima (Chiwei Yu).
Japan annexed the archipelago after China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, from 1894 to 1895. The islands were excluded from the Treaty of San Francisco at the end of World War II, which returned to China most of the territories previously occupied by Japan.
Under the terms of Japan’s surrender, the islands were placed under US control until 1971when they were sent back to Japan along with Okinawa and other nearby islands.
China’s official statement
China first justified its territorial claims over the Senkakus on December 30 1971, the date on which he officially communicated his request claiming that they are dependent on Taiwan and that, therefore, like Taiwan, they must be an inseparable part of Chinese territory.
Yes indeed, Two years earlier, a report had already highlighted the potential oil reserves in the region.which prompted China to reassert its territorial claims over the islands, something Japan ignores, since it does not even recognize Chinese claims or the existence of a dispute over the sovereignty of the islands.
The United States has also repeatedly stressed that the disputed territory is included in the bilateral security treaty signed between the United States and Japanand reiterated that US forces would protect the islands if necessary.
Hydrocarbon deposits
Interest in this territory located in the East China Sea, 1,800 kilometers from Tokyoabout 200 from Taiwan and about 300 from the Japanese island of Okinawa, is completely economical, since the archipelago is surrounded by waters where fishing is plentiful and above all there is potential hydrocarbon deposits in the environmentlike that of Chunxiao/Shirakaba.
If the two questions are combined with strategic geographical location of the archipelago, the reasons for the dispute are more than documented.
In 1969, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East pointed out in a report that the strip between Taiwan and Japan “It seems to have great potential as a future oil region of the world”.
In private hands
In 2012, Three of the Senkaku Islands were purchased by the Japanese governmentsince they had been sold to a family of local businessmen in 1932, after Japanese businessmen will exploit the guano and feathers of albatrosses there. since 1884. The Japanese acquisition outraged China, which encouraged a boycott of everything Japanese, especially Japanese products.
After decades of disputes, mutual provocations and clashes of all kinds, In 2017, China and Japan reached an agreement to try to provide a “a new beginning” to their bilateral relations, seriously damaged by issues such as the sovereignty of the Sendaku.
Relations began to sour in 2018, but have not progressed further over the disputed archipelago and the fact that the United States and Japan then organized the conflict. the largest war exercises they have conducted jointly precisely in the waters of this area, this ended up cooling the efforts to reach an agreement on sovereignty and the exploitation of possible deposits.
The moment of greatest tension
The moments of greatest tension within the Senkaku occurred in 2010. Japan captures Chinese fishing boat and crew after hitting two coast guard ships near the islands. China took the opportunity to justify that it was exploiting hydrocarbon deposits in the region, alluding to the fact that it “perfectly legal” do it.
“China exercises sovereign right and jurisdiction over the Chunxiao oil and gas fields”noted the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And by then the resources of Chunxiao (Shirakaba for the Japanese) They have never been exploitedBut Chinese and Japanese authorities have been negotiating for years over these “ownerless” hydrocarbon deposits in the East China Sea.
For its part, Japan admitted that China had restarted its activities in these controversial areas. “We are certain that new Chinese equipment was brought to Shirakaba”said a Japanese Foreign Ministry official.
Chinese activists
China summoned the Japanese ambassador five times in 2010 to demand the immediate release of the fishing boat captain, who was handed over to Japanese justice, saying that His detention was “illegal” and constituted an “obstacle in bilateral relations.” Eventually, the crew was released. After, Japan arrests 14 Chinese activists who arrived in the Senkakus from Hong Kong and burned Japanese flags on the islands, again sparking protests in China.
Despite the large number of incidents between the two countries, Japan and China have agreed resume negotiationswhich was partly successful through fishing, but did not go further with the aim of conducting joint exploration in the area. Beijing authorities backtrack and canceled the talks, described 14 years ago by Japan as “extremely unhappy”.
While Japan controls the territory and Taiwan and China claim it, International law considers the Senkaku Islands to be “terra nullius”because they have never been permanently occupied. That is to say, “no man’s land”.
Permanent tension
Any presence within the Senkaku has been considered a provocation by the rival party for decades. a dispute that seems endless. Of course, that same week, hostilities escalated after Tokyo protested to Beijing over the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning approaches, accompanied by two destroyersin its territorial waters southeast of the Senkaku, in what is the first such incursion in the region.
Japan described the raid as “very worrying”since this is the first time that a Chinese military aircraft carrier has entered the so-called contiguous zone of Japan, the area adjacent to Japanese territorial waters, as confirmed by the vice-spokesman of the Japanese executive, Hiroshi Moriya.
The fact is that the constant and increasing presence of shipsJapanese and Chinese in the waters near the Senkaku continues to fuel concerns about a possible military confrontation between the two countries or, even worse, between their allies.
