Purchasing Power

Following months of dispute over ownership of the Diaoyu Islands (known as the Senkaku in Japan), a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea administered by Japan but claimed by China, heated bilateral exchanges broke out when Japan officially “nationalized” the islands, signing a contract to purchase them from a private owner on September 10 and 11.

Escalation

The purchase was made one day after a warning from Chinese President Hu Jintao, who told Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda that Japan should fully comprehend the severity and sensitivity of the issue and avoid a “wrong decision,” during the 21st annual gathering of APEC leaders in Vladivostok on September 9.

Japan’s decision to “nationalize” the islands immediately provoked strong reactions from Beijing. The State Council, the National People’s Congress and the military all voiced their condemnation in the following days.

A harshly worded editorial published September 11 in the Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China’s military, warned that Japan would have to “swallow the bitter fruit” if it did not reverse the purchase.

“China is no longer the China that fought the Sino-Japanese War [in 1894-1895 when the islands were seized by Japan], nor the one that was invaded by imperial Japan [during World War II],” warned the editorial.

On September 13, six Chinese maritime patrol vessels, an unprecedented number, entered waters around the islands to “enforce China’s sovereignty,” and exchanged warnings with Japanese Coast Guard vessels. Earlier in July, two similar vessels had entered the waters in protest against the purchase, followed by two separate landings made by nationalist activists from both countries in mid-August.

On September 16, China’s State broadcaster CCTV reported that China’s East China Sea Fleet had launched a large-scale military drill, involving “dozens of ships” and “firing over 40 missiles of different types.”

‘Two-Man Act’?

Tokyo has claimed that the purchase aimed to “ensure long-term stability on the islands, as well as the overall relationship between Japan and China.” It suggested that nationalizing the islands would allow it to keep its own nationalist activists under control. The issue was first ignited by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, known for his right-wing views, who began a campaign to buy the islands in April. The Japanese government responded that it would negotiate with the owners of the islands to nationalize them.

To appease China, Yoshihiko Noda pledged that Japan would continue to outlaw all unau- thorized landings and refrain from commencing any construction on the islands.

However, Noda’s government’s attempt to prosecute a Chinese fishing boat captain detained in 2010, considered an effort to change the status quo by making Chinese nationals apprehended in the region subject to Japanese laws, has left many in China unconvinced.

“It is a two-man act [between Noda and Ishihara], setting a trap for China,” Gao Hong, vice director of the Institute of Japanese Studies under the China Academy of Social Sciences(CASS) told NewsChina. According to Gao, the Japanese government “shares the same goals as its right-wing activists,” namely to consolidate, legalize and perpetuate its control over the islands.

With frequent changes in the Japanese cabinet, it is concerned that any concession or compromise made by China may be seen as a sign of weakness, and taken as the starting point for Japan’s next government. Noda’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is currently facing a serious challenge from the opposition, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which was in power for 54 years until three years ago. Both parties have expressed their support for a firm stance on the islands.

‘Islands of Nationalism’

On September 10, China announced the boundaries of its territory around the Diaoyu Islands. “In defining boundaries, China has the legal basis for its jurisdiction of the waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands, in line with domestic and international law,” Deng Zhonghua, head of the Department of Boundaries and Maritime Affairs with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CCTV.

“It is a legal countermeasure, as Japan’s ‘nationalization’ of the islands was a provocation to China in the form of legalization of its own control,” Professor Qu Xing, director of the China Institute of International Studies, told NewsChina.

In the legal sense, the announcement also means that China no longer acknowledges any dispute regarding the sovereignty of the islands. The move is also deemed a response to repeated assertions by DPJ leaders that the islands are undisputed Japanese territory, a shift from the position of earlier Japanese governments.

The Diaoyu Islands, annexed as “unclaimed territory” by Japan in 1895, are considered by China to be a part of Taiwan and should have been returned to China after World War II. China protested when the US, which seized the islands during World War II, transferred their administration to Japan in 1971, but agreed to put aside the dispute when normalizing diplomatic relations with Japan in 1972.

For many, Japan’s move reflects the change in the landscape of the region’s geopolitics.“China’s rapid rise, especially its replacement of Japan as the world’s second largest economy in 2010, has led to a shift in the geopolitics in the region,” Chen Fengying, director of the Institute of World Economic Studies under the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations told NewsChina. “Unprepared to face a rising neighbor and struggling with a troubled economy, Japan’s national psyche has experienced a twist, leading to the rise of rightwing nationalist forces.”

“On the Japanese side, there is growing anxiety over China’s increasing economic and military prowess… and some nationalists would like to ‘settle’ the matter in Japan’s favor as soon as possible,” said Wenran Jiang, a professor of political science at the University of Alberta and a senior fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, in an article published in China’s Caijing magazine, titled “Islands of Nationalism.”

According to Professor Jiang, territorial squabbles with other countries in the South China Sea and America’s foreign policy “pivot”to Asia, viewed by many Chinese as an effort to contain China’s rise, has fueled “a siege mentality” among Chinese nationalists.

Japan’s purchase inflamed nationalist sentiment in China, resulting in violent anti-Japan protests across the country over the weekend of September 16. Protesters clashed with paramilitary police outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing, while in Xi’an and several other cities, roaming mobs destroyed Japanese-made cars and set fire to Japanese restaurants and shops. In Shanghai, several Japanese nationals were reported to have been attacked.

“[Since the purchase,] the Japanese government can no longer claim that it cannot take action against non-governmental right-wing activists, and the contest will be conducted directly between the two governments in the future, with no civilian veils,” Professor Su Hao, director of the Center for Strategic and Conflict Management at China Foreign Affairs told our reporter.

On September 19, the Japanese media reported that 14 Chinese government vessels had sailed into waters close to the islands, followed by a report the following day that two Chinese warships had appeared 100 miles northwest of the islands. It is predicted that the confrontation will soon begin to affect economic and trade links between the two countries.

However, most observers believe that the tension will not necessarily lead to armed conflict. “Constrained by complicated relationships between the big powers [in the region], the two countries would prefer not to resort to a military solution,” commented Xue Litai in the Singapore-based based newspaper Lianhe Zaobao. “But as there is no room for compromise between the two countries, the volatile tension will remain a chronic problem for the foreseeable future,” he added.