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How a Few Tiny Islands Put Japan and China in Dispute

How a Few Tiny Islands Put Japan and China in Dispute: QuickTake

The South China Sea isn’t the only arena in Asia’s waters where China’s territorial claims are stoking tensions. One thousand miles to the northeast, China is in a dispute with Japan over century-old claims to a set of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea -- called the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China. That poses the potential for wider conflict, since the U.S. has said the islands are covered by its security treaty with Japan. Tokyo and Beijing have for decades been at loggerheads over the islands whose combined surface area is about 3 square miles (7 square kilometers), causing almost daily friction, raising concerns that a bigger confrontation might erupt at any time.

1. Where are the disputed islands?

With eight major outcrops, the islands are located about 105 miles (170 kilometers) northeast of the northern tip of Taiwan, which also has a claim on them, but has largely stayed out of the fray. Japan lists the isles -- the biggest of which measures 1.5 square miles -- in its Okinawa prefecture and says they were incorporated into the nation’s territory in 1895. Beijing holds that they are part of its historical territory that should have been returned with the rest of Japan’s colonial possessions after World War II. As many as 200 Japanese lived there in the early years, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, producing dried fish or collecting bird feathers to sell. Now human-free, only goats are sighted there.

2. What’s in the waters?

The area has abundant fishing stocks, but what is beneath the sea bed looks to be even more lucrative. Interest in the islands increased after the discovery of potential undersea hydrocarbon reserves in 1968, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration sees the East China Sea basin as a possible rich source of natural gas that could help meet Chinese and Japanese domestic demand. The U.S., which held the islands at the time, allowed them to pass into Japanese hands. Beijing, which was moving to restore ties with Tokyo and Washington at the time, didn’t let the dispute derail the diplomatic detente.

3. How has this played out?

A decision in 2012 by then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to nationalize some of the islands from private Japanese owners lifted the dispute to a new more contentious level. A wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations and boycotts followed in China, while Beijing stepped up maritime patrols. Japan has since accused China of making hundreds of incursions a year and trying “to change the status quo by coercion” using regular navy and air force patrols. The Japanese upgraded their radar and patrol capabilities and are building anti-ship missile units in the Ryukyu archipelago just over 250 miles away, according to one report in July.

4. Is this getting out of control?

No, but it’s heating up. While the government in Japan accused Chinese vessels of making more than 1,000 incursions last year into a contiguous area around the islands, China counters that Japan is the one making illegal forays. Even though both lodge regular diplomatic protests, the two countries have tried to manage the conflict. With China facing a bruising diplomatic and trade battle with the U.S., it doesn’t want to pick a fight with another major power. Tokyo also is not keen to stir up trouble with its biggest trading partner. Still, Japan’s then-defense minister told the Chinese ambassador last year to hold off on military activities close to the islands. That came even as Beijing appeared to ratchet down tensions by telling the operators of hundreds of fishing trawlers not to go near them.

5. What does the U.S. say?

Joe Biden, in his first phone call to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as president, reiterated the U.S. stance that its “unwavering commitment to the defense of Japan” covers the Senkaku islands. Last year, Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider, the commander of U.S. Forces Japan, offered to help Japan with information, surveillance and reconnaissance capability, accusing Beijing of a maritime intimidation campaign against countries in the region. A White House report under former President Donald Trump said China was “engaging in provocative and coercive” military activities in areas including the South China Sea, where the country is in dispute with nations including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

The Reference Shelf

  • A QuickTake explainer on the South China Sea dispute.
  • A report by International Crisis Group.
  • The Council on Foreign Relations’ conflict tracker on the dispute.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Bloomberg