The right wing militant governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, is still waving his samurai sword like a true samurai. He is still living in the days of the Japanese Empire, when Japan ruled East Asia, with Korea and Taiwan as their colonies and China a semi colony. Yesterday he proudly announced that he is going to buy Diaoyutai, a Chinese island which the Japanese claimed during the Empire days and named Senkaku, from a Japanese owner. What’s next, he is going to buy over Taiwan from another Japanese and Dokto from another Japanese as well.
China is lucky that it now carries a bigger stick than the samurai sword and when comes to the crunch, China can wield the stick and swing it hard at the Japanese. What else can the Chinese do if the Japanese insist on taking over Diaoyutai? The Japanese position has weakened over the last decade with the realization that China will go to war if Japan dares take over the island. They used to arrest Chinese and Taiwanese fishing boats and chased them away with their coast guards like what the Philippines were trying to do. The Philippines too were arresting Chinese fishing boats till the latest incident when they threatened some Chinese fishermen with their WW 2 antique warship donated by the Americans.
What happened after the provocative attempt to arrest the Chinese fishermen and threatening to defend their claims with their big guns? They quietly sailed back to Luzon on the pretext of refueling and needing food ration. Or was it that the Chinese told them that they would be sunk by Chinese submarines on their flanks if they refused to get lost?
Lately the Japanese too have been less brazen in arresting and chasing away Chinese fishing boats. They know that their Empire days are over, except for militants like Shintaro. It may be time for some fireworks. And this time it would be the Chinese turn to tell the Japanese that it was the Japanese fault for carrying a smaller gun than the Chinese. That was what the Japanese told the Chinese when they invaded China in the early 20th Century. The Japanese like Shintaro may want to taste their own medicine by pushing the boundary against China. They can still count on America to fight on their side. They can try and see if Tokyo still exists in the aftermath.
Since the Diaoyutai belongs to a owner and Japan has to buy it to own it, China should arrest the present owner for illegal occupation.
ReplyDeleteChina was the original owner of Diaoyutai, therefore it has every right to evict or arrest the present occupier.
Why should Japan have to buy it IF IT BELONGS TO JAPAN?
Sori;
ReplyDeletenot sure if Diaoyutai should read Diaoyu Islets.
If me not mistaken, Diaoyutai is a venue in Beijing for the top leaders and their guests.
It is easy to cook up some documents and get a Japanese to claim he had bought it or inherited it from his ancestors.
ReplyDeleteDiaoyutai is the Chinese name for the islets. It is also used as a name for a state guesthouse in Zhongnanhai I think.
In the heyday of western imperialism and in the years between 1830s and 1940s a weak China was ferociously and wantonly attacked on all fronts by western countries and Japan. During these years England, Russia, France, Germany and Japan grabbed at will millions of square miles of Chinese lands. In this the evil Russians took the most of Chinese lands comprising a few million square miles in the north including territories around Lake Baikal, the Maritime Province astriding the north of the Heilongjiang River and the Usurri River right up to the coast facing the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean and inclusive of the island of Sakhalin. All were grabbed by Russia between 1860s and 1885. In 1875 Japan occupied the Chinese territories of Liu Chiu Tao and renamed it Okinawa. After the Second World War Liu Chiu Tao and the neighbouring Diaoyu Tao which the Japs called Senkaku were placed under United Nations trusteeship under the administration of the Evil Empire US. These territories were supposed to be returned to China. But the evil empire US reverted Liu Chiu Dao back to Japanese possession and in 1974 handed Diaoyu Dao to Japan too. In doing this US insidious purpose was to plant the evil seeds of contention between Japan and China.
ReplyDeleteSouthernglory1
Solution is simple... Singapore buy. Singapore rich what! and the island is too far to deploy any troops to be of any serious threat to China and Japan. Cone to think of it, even if we are to send our whole army, navy and some say air force, it still won't worry the other two countries. After that Singapore can convert the island for our NS boys training or perhaps built a uni for all foreign scholars. Solve our problem of overcrowding a help make peace between two countries. WIN-WIN
ReplyDelete(East Asian Policy Jul-Sep 2011 Edition Page 42)
ReplyDeleteShintaro Ishihara compared Japan to a sinking Titanic ... as people on board scrambled to no avail to a safe corner ...
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