The Senkaku Islands are a small group of islands off the coasts of Taiwan and China and just south of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The group consists of five islands and three rocks. The islands range in size from four and a third square kilometers to a little less than one third of a square kilometer. The islands do support life and the largest is home to species found only on this island, such as the Senkaku mole. Three of the islands are known to support special herbs.
These islands have recently been the subject of a heated land claim between China, Taiwan, and Japan. While such disputes are common, onlookers have been puzzled by the heat of this debate over these small islands that have no important resources. There has been speculation that there may be oil off the shores of these islands, but still certainly not enough to warrant such a conflict.
This is what has led to the assumption that this conflict is less over land as it is over national pride. Taiwan and China have a long standing argument with each other over who is really China. Taiwan's true name is the Republic of China while China's is the People's Republic of China. This, along with Japan and China's general dislike for each other, has given rise to this uncompromising view towards these islands.
All three countries have good claims for the islands. Japan claims that the islands are an integral part of Japan and therefore automatically under their control. China and Taiwan have created a pretty comic situation with their claims. Both are saying that by signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and their by agreeing to the Potsdam Agreement, Japan relinquished control of these islands. The comic part is that they simply disagree on which China the islands should go to. China ( the one we call China ) is also claiming to have controlled the islands up until the Sino-Japanese War, thus saying that the islands should fall to them.
So far, the world has pretty much left them their bickering. However, recent escalations threaten to drag other countries into the dispute. Recently, eight Chinese warships entered the waters surrounding the disputed islands, more at once then at any other time. The Japanese offered stern rebuke for the perceived violation of their sovereignty, but the Chinese retorted that it was Japan that had breached their boundaries. China also rebuked Japanese ministers for visiting a war shrine that honored those fallen in battle, but also some convicted war criminals. This however did not stop 168 ministers from visiting the shrine more recently ( in my opinion, probably to spite China ). These events also follow Japan's purchase of much of three of the major islands from private landholders. These are simply the most recent events in a chain of events that has escalated from a peaceful, diplomatic disagreement to a matter that has both countries sending in warships and scrambling jet fighters. How long it will be till it is resolved, none can tell. However, the true question is how much higher this will escalate. Will it stop at military posturing, or will it become a military conflict? And will the world be dragged in? Only time will tell.
Sources
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/world/asia/japan-china-disputed-islands/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/world/asia/japan-china-disputed-islands/index.html?iref=allsearch
These islands have recently been the subject of a heated land claim between China, Taiwan, and Japan. While such disputes are common, onlookers have been puzzled by the heat of this debate over these small islands that have no important resources. There has been speculation that there may be oil off the shores of these islands, but still certainly not enough to warrant such a conflict.
This is what has led to the assumption that this conflict is less over land as it is over national pride. Taiwan and China have a long standing argument with each other over who is really China. Taiwan's true name is the Republic of China while China's is the People's Republic of China. This, along with Japan and China's general dislike for each other, has given rise to this uncompromising view towards these islands.
All three countries have good claims for the islands. Japan claims that the islands are an integral part of Japan and therefore automatically under their control. China and Taiwan have created a pretty comic situation with their claims. Both are saying that by signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and their by agreeing to the Potsdam Agreement, Japan relinquished control of these islands. The comic part is that they simply disagree on which China the islands should go to. China ( the one we call China ) is also claiming to have controlled the islands up until the Sino-Japanese War, thus saying that the islands should fall to them.
So far, the world has pretty much left them their bickering. However, recent escalations threaten to drag other countries into the dispute. Recently, eight Chinese warships entered the waters surrounding the disputed islands, more at once then at any other time. The Japanese offered stern rebuke for the perceived violation of their sovereignty, but the Chinese retorted that it was Japan that had breached their boundaries. China also rebuked Japanese ministers for visiting a war shrine that honored those fallen in battle, but also some convicted war criminals. This however did not stop 168 ministers from visiting the shrine more recently ( in my opinion, probably to spite China ). These events also follow Japan's purchase of much of three of the major islands from private landholders. These are simply the most recent events in a chain of events that has escalated from a peaceful, diplomatic disagreement to a matter that has both countries sending in warships and scrambling jet fighters. How long it will be till it is resolved, none can tell. However, the true question is how much higher this will escalate. Will it stop at military posturing, or will it become a military conflict? And will the world be dragged in? Only time will tell.
Sources
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/world/asia/japan-china-disputed-islands/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/world/asia/japan-china-disputed-islands/index.html?iref=allsearch