Senkaku-Diaoyu Dispute China/Japan/U.S. The United

Transcript:Senkaku-Diaoyu Dispute China/Japan/U.S. The United:
Senkaku-Diaoyu Dispute China/Japan/U.S. The United States and China clashed over Japan last week as the Chinese defense minister asserted that Beijing had “indisputable sovereignty” over a group of islands in the East China Sea and that his country’s military stood ready to protect its interests in territorial disputes What islands? Senkaku(known in Japan)-Diaoyu(known in China) At the heart of the dispute are eight uninhabited islands and rocks in the East China Sea. Why do they matter so much to China and Japan? They matter because they are close to important shipping lanes, offer rich fishing grounds and lie near potential oil and gas reserves. They are also in a strategically significant position, this is because rising competition between the US and China for military primacy in the Asia-Pacific region. What is Japan's claim? Japan says it surveyed the islands for 10 years in the 19th Century and determined that they were uninhabited. In 1895 Japan instituted a sovereignty marker and formally incorporated the islands into Japanese territory. After World War Two, Japan renounced claims to a number of territories and islands including Taiwan in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco. These islands, however, came under US trusteeship and were returned to Japan in 1971 under the Okinawa reversion deal. Japan says China raised no objections to the San Francisco deal. And it says that it is only since the 1970s, when the issue of oil resources in the area emerged, that Chinese and Taiwanese authorities began pressing their claims. What is China's claim? China says that the islands have been part of its territory since ancient times, serving as important fishing grounds administered by the province of Taiwan. Taiwan was ceded to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, after the Sino-Japanese war. When Taiwan was returned in the Treaty of San Francisco, China says the islands should have been returned too. Beijing says Taiwan's Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek did not raise the issue, even when the islands were named in the later Okinawa reversion deal, because he depended on the US for support. What is the role of the US? The US and Japan forged a security alliance in the wake of World War II and formalized it in 1960. Under the deal, the US is given military bases in Japan in return for its promise to defend Japan in the event of an attack. This means if