Senkaku Islands

Pinnacle islands
Disputed islands
Other names: Japanese: 尖閣諸島
Chinese: 釣魚台列嶼; Chinese: 钓鱼台群岛;
Diaoyutai senkaku.png
Location of the islands (inside red rectangle and inset).
  1. Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyu Dao,
  2. Taisho Jima/Chiwei Yu,
  3. Kuba Jima/Huangwei Yu,
  4. Kita Kojima/Bei Xiaodao,
  5. Minami Kojima/Nan Xiaodao,
  6. Okino Kitaiwa/Da Bei Xiaodao,
  7. Okino Minami-iwa/Da Nan Xiaodao,
  8. Tobise/Yan Jiaoyan or Fei Jiaoyan
Geography
Location Pacific Ocean
Total islands 5 + 3 rocks
Area 7 square kilometres (1,700 acres)
Highest point Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyu Dao
383 metres (1,257 ft)
Administered by
 Japan
City Ishigaki
Claimed by
 Japan
Prefecture Okinawa
 People's Republic of China
Province Taiwan Province
 Republic of China (Taiwan)
Township Toucheng, Yilan County
Demographics
Population 0
Senkaku Islands
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 釣魚臺群島 or 釣魚台群島
Simplified Chinese 钓鱼台群岛
Literal meaning angling platform islands
Pinnacle Islands
Traditional Chinese 釣魚臺列嶼 or 釣魚台列嶼
Simplified Chinese 钓鱼台列屿
Japanese name
Kanji 尖閣諸島

The Pinnacle Islands, also known as Diaoyutai Islands (simplified Chinese: 钓鱼台群岛; traditional Chinese: 釣魚台群島; pinyin: Diàoyútái Qúndǎo), or Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島 Senkaku Shotō?), are a group of disputed uninhabited islands controlled by Japan since 1972, but also claimed by both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China as part of Taiwan Province, Toucheng Township in Yilan County.

The islands are located roughly northeast of Taiwan, due west of Okinawa, and due north of the southwestern end of the Ryukyu Islands in the East China Sea.

The islands are a major issue in foreign relations between Japan and the PRC and between Japan and the ROC. The Japanese government regards these islands as a part of Okinawa prefecture. Despite the complexity of the PRC-ROC relation, both governments agree that the islands are part of Taiwan, which is administered by the ROC.

Contents

Naming

Diaoyutai Islands

The first recorded naming of the islands dated back to the Ming Dynasty of China (14th-17th century) in books such as Voyage with the Tail Wind (順風相送), Journey to Lew Chew (使琉球錄). The Chinese Imperial Map of the Ming Dynasty also used Diaoyudao Islands.

The Chinese name for the island group (Diaoyu) and the Japanese name for the main island (Uotsuri) both literally mean "Angling".

Pinnacle Islands

In the 19th century, the Pinnacle Islands or Pinnacle Group was an English-language name used for the rocks adjacent to, but not including, the largest island Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyu Dao (then called Hoa-pin-su). Neither Kuba Jima/Huangwei Yu (then called Ti-a-usu) nor Taishō Jima/Chiwei Yu (then called "Raleigh Rock") were part of the Pinnacle Islands either.[1][2][3]

However, in recent years the name "Pinnacle Islands" has come to be used to refer to the entire island group, as an English-language equivalent to "Diaoyu" or "Senkaku".[4][5]

Senkaku Islands

In the late 19th century, Sentō Shosho (尖頭諸嶼?) and Senkaku Shosho (尖閣諸嶼?) were translations used for these "Pinnacle Islands" by various Japanese sources. Subsequently, the entire island group (including Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyu Dao and all the others) came to be called Senkaku Rettō, which later evolved into Senkaku Shotō.[6]

Geography

The islands group

The islands sit on the edge of the continental shelf of mainland Asia, and are separated from the Ryukyu Islands by the Okinawa Trough. Japan argues that these islets are part of the Ryukyu Islands. They are 170 kilometers (106 mi) north of Ishigaki Island, Japan; 186 km (116 mi) northeast of Keelung, Taiwan; and 410 km (255 mi) west of Okinawa Island.

The group is made up of five small non-volcanic islands:

Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyu Dao

Aerial view of Diaoyu Dao, Diaoyu Tai or Uotsuri Jima

Uotsuri Jima (魚釣島[7]) or Diaoyudao (釣魚島[8]) is the largest island of the Senkaku Islands. The Island located at has an area of 4.3 square kilometres (1.7 sq mi) and a highest elevation of 383 metres (1,257 ft).[9]

Uotsuri jima/Diaoyudao has a number of endemic species such as the Senkaku mole (Nesoscaptor uchidai) and Okinawa-kuro-oo-ari ant, but these have become threatened by domestic goats that were introduced to the island in 1978 and whose population has increased to over 300 since that time.[10]

Kuba Jima/Huangwei Yu

Kuba Jima (久場島[7]) or Huangwei Yu (黃尾嶼[8]) is located at has an area of 1.08 square kilometers (0.4 sq mi) and a highest elevation of 117 meters (384 ft).[11]

Taishō Jima/Chiwei Yu

Taishō Jima (大正島[7]) or Chiwei Yu (赤尾嶼[8]) is located at has an area of 0.609 square kilometers (0.2 sq mi) and a highest elevation of 75 meters (246 ft).[12] Both the People's Republic of China and Republic of China claim it as their island.

The US Navy used Kuba Jima/Huangwei Yu and Taisho Jima/Chiwei Yu as maneuver areas after World War II.

Kita Kojima/Bei Xiaodao

Kita Kojima (left) and Minami Kojima islands

Kita Kojima (北小島) or Bei Xiaodao is located at and has an area of 0.31 square kilometres (77 acres) and a highest elevation of 125 metres (410 ft).[13]

Nan Xiaodao/Minami Kojima

Minami Kojima or Nan Xiaodao (南小島) is located at and has an area of 0.40 square kilometres (99 acres) and a highest elevation of 139 metres (456 ft).

This island is one of the few breeding places of the rare Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus).

Other islands

There are also three larger rocks:

Territorial dispute

Beginning of the dispute

Following the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji Japanese government invaded the Ryūkyū Kingdom and formally annexed the islands to Japan as Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. The diaoyu island, which lies between Ryukyu Kingdom and China, became Sino-Japanese boundary for the first time.

In 1885, the Japanese-appointed governor of Okinawa petitioned Tokyo for the take-over of the Diaoyu Islands. The Japanese government felt hesitated until January 1895 in the midst of the Sino-Japanese War. After China lost the war, both countries signed up the Treaty of Shimonoseki that stipulated, among other things, that China ceded to Japan "the island of Formosa together with all islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa"[17].

Whether the Diaoyu Islands, which were not called Senkaku by Japan until 1900, are implied in "islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa" is an unsettled question.

From the end of World War II until 1972, the United States occupied Okinawa and controlled the outlying islands. In 1969, the US expressed its intention to hand over the occupied territories, including the disputed islands, to Japan.[18]

Both the PRC and ROC governments protested and reiterated their claim to sovereignty over the islands. The ROC made the official announcement on 11 June 1971, followed by the PRC on 30 December. However, the United States handed over the disputed islands to Japan as of May 15, 1972,[19].

Chinese claims

The Chinese claim to Senkaku Islands, in brief, proceeds as follows: the islands were known to the Chinese at least (and possibly as early as 770 BC ~ 221 BC, from a passage in the Shan Hai Jing, chapter "Haineibei jing"[20]) since the Ming Dynasty, and were controlled by the Qing Dynasty along with Taiwan.

They were ceded to Japan under an unequal treaty in 1895 along with Taiwan. Between 1895 and 1945, Japan administered the islands as part of Taiwan. Unequal treaties are null and void; however, more importantly, none of the Allies recognized any transfer of the territorial sovereignty of either Taiwan or any nearby islands to the ROC at any time during the 1940s or 1950s. In a 1959 court case in the United States, the US State Dept. was specifically quoted as maintaining that: " . . . the sovereignty of Formosa has not been transferred to China . . . " and that "Formosa is not a part of China as a country, at least not as yet, and not until and unless appropriate treaties are hereafter entered into. Formosa may be said to be a territory or an area occupied and administered by the Government of the Republic of China, but is not officially recognized as being a part of the Republic of China."[21]

After WWII, due to the civil war between competing PRC and ROC factions in China, both parties did not place their focus on the islands to avoid further disputes.

From 1945 to 1971, the Chinese held undefined positions on the sovereignty and administration on the islands. In 1971 when the US expressed its intention to hand over the disputed islands to Japan, both the PRC and ROC governments protested and reiterated their sovereignty over the islands.

Ming Dynasty claim

China claims that the islands were within the Ming Dynasty's sea-defense area and are a part of Taiwan.[22] According to the Chinese, China's sovereignty over the islands is dated to early 15th century, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty. The name Diaoyutai first appeared in 1403 in the Chinese book Voyage with the Tail Wind (順風相送), which recorded the names of the islands that voyagers had passed on a trip from Fujian to the Ryukyu Kingdom. By 1534, all the major islets of the island group had been identified and named in the book Record of the Imperial Envoy to Ryukyu(使琉球錄).[22]

Qing Dynasty claim

From 1624 until 1662, Taiwan and some of its surrounding islands, though not the Senkakus, were controlled by the Dutch as a base for commerce. In 1662, the Dutch were driven out by ex-Ming Dynasty general Zheng Chenggong (more popularly known as Koxinga). Zheng Chenggong and his successors established the Kingdom of Tungning and controlled the area until 1683. That year, Zheng's grandson Zheng Keshuang was defeated by Qing Dynasty forces led by Admiral Shi Lang. From then on, Qing Dynasty China gained effective control over Taiwan and its surrounding islands, including the islands in dispute today.[23]

Unequal Treaties

After losing the First Sino-Japanese War, Qing China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki on 17 April 1895. This Unequal Treaty ceded Taiwan and its surrounding islands to Japan. The Chinese governments see the disputed islands as having been included in the islands ceded to Japan by the treaty, because of the historical evidence discussed above, even though the Treaty did not explicitly enumerate all the islands ceded under it.

On this basis, they argue for Chinese sovereignty over the islands for two reasons. First, that all the Unequal Treaties are null and void and thus the islands are still part of Taiwan Province of China.[24] Secondly, that since the disputed islands were ceded along with Taiwan in 1895, therefore when Japan returned to China all territories it had obtained from China since the First Sino-Japanese War at the end of World War II, the disputed islands were returned along with Taiwan to China.

However, the United States, as principal victor over Japan, has consistently maintained that there was no "return" of island territories to China after the close of hostilities in WWII, either due to the Japanese surrender ceremonies, or according to the specifications of the post-war treaties. The Starr Memorandum of the US State Dept., issued in Oct. 1971, is often quoted as an authoritative reference on this subject.[25]

Tokyo court ruling

China also asserted that in 1944, the Tokyo court ruled that the islands were part of Taihoku Prefecture (Taipei Prefecture), following a dispute between Okinawa Prefecture and Taihoku Prefecture. However, the assertion was solely based on a "claim" by the president of the fishermen's association of Keelung city in 4 August 1971. The primary source of this paragraph can be found in the journal "Modern China Studies", Issue 1, 1997 (in Simplified Chinese).[26]

Japanese claims

The Japanese claim to the islands briefly proceeds as follows: the islands were not inhabited up to 1895; several months before the cession of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty to Japan, Japan had already claimed and incorporated the islands into Japanese territory; as a result, the islands remained Japanese territory and would not be affected by the retro-cession of Taiwan in 1945; though the islands were controlled by the United States as occupying power between 1945 and 1972, Japan has since 1972 exercised administration over the islands. According to Japanese government, PRC and ROC have come to claim the sovereignty since a submarine oil field was discovered near these islands. In addition, former President of Republic of China Lee Teng-hui also once considers the Senkaku Islands are part of Okinawa.[27]

Formal incorporation

Japan claims that after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government conducted surveys of the islands beginning in 1885 confirming no evidence that the uninhabited islands had been under Chinese control, though this conflicts with the earlier Chinese claim of the islands during the Qing Dynasty. At the time of this survey, Japan did not formally declare a claim to the islands. Instead, it waited until 14 January 1895, during the middle of the First Sino-Japanese War, to do this. Just three months before its military victory in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan erected a marker on the islands to formally incorporate them as its territory. This decision was not made public until 1950, however.[28] Four of the islands were subsequently borrowed and developed by the Koga family with the permission of the Japanese government.

History of Ming

Japanese scholars claim that neither China nor Ryukyu had recognized sovereignty over the uninhabited islands. Therefore, they claim that Chinese documents only prove that Kumejima, the first inhabited island reached by the Chinese, belonged to Okinawa. Kentaro Serita (芹田健太郎) of Kobe University points out that the official history book of the Ming Dynasty compiled during the Qing Dynasty, called the History of Ming (明史), describes Taiwan in the "Stories of Foreign Countries" (外国列传). Thus, China did not control the Senkaku Islands or Taiwan during the Ming Dynasty.[29] The contrary viewpoint is that this evidence goes only to verify the fact that the early Qing Dynasty (which compiled the book) saw Taiwan and its surrounding islands as outside its territory. For 39 years between the end of the Ming Dynasty and the conquest of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty, Taiwan was indeed ruled by a separate regime, the Kingdom of Tungning which swore loyalty to the Ming. Such evidence is thus not relevant to the Qing Dynasty's attitude towards the islands after its conquest of Taiwan.

Letter from a Chinese diplomat

Letter of thanks from ROC consul to Ishigakijima in 1920.jpg

In a letter purportedly sent to Japanese fishermen, who rescued a number of shipwrecked Chinese in 1920, by a Chinese Consul Feng Mien (馮冕) in Nagasaki, representing the Beiyang Government, a warlord regime, reference was made to "Senkaku Islands, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture, the Empire of Japan".[30] However this letter is written after the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895), under which the government of Qing Dynasty ceded the Senkaku Islands to Japan as a part of Taiwan. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was nullified by the end of World War II.[31][32]

Geography Textbook

According to the geography textbook published in 1970 in Taiwan, where every textbook had to be officially approved by the government, clearly showed the islands as Japanese territories.[33]

United States occupation

Japan claims that after World War II, the islands came under the United States occupation of Okinawa. During this period, the United States and the Ryūkyū Government administered the islands and the US Navy even used Kuba-jima and Taisho-jima as maneuver areas. In 1972, sovereignty over Okinawa, and arguably the surrounding islands, was handed back to Japan as part of the termination of United States Military Government jurisdiction over the Article 3 territories of the Treaty of San Francisco.

Recent developments

Oil drilling dispute

Japan has objected to Chinese development of natural gas resources in the East China Sea in an area where the two countries Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims overlap. Japan claims a division of the EEZ on the median line between the countries' coastlines. About 40,000 square kilometers of EEZ are in dispute. China and Japan both claim 200 nautical miles EEZ rights, but the East China Sea width is only 360 nautical miles. China claims an EEZ extending to the eastern end of the Chinese continental shelf which goes deep into the Japanese EEZ beyond the median line.[35]

The specific development in dispute is China's drilling in the Chunxiao field, which is three miles west of the median line, but which Japan contends may be tapping natural gas reserves which extend past the median line. The Chunxiao gas field in Xihu Sag in the East China Sea is estimated to hold reserves of more than 1.6 tcf of natural gas and is expected to become a major producer in the next ten years. Commercial operation was expected to begin in mid-2005 at a production rate of 70 bcf per year, rising to 282 bcf by 2010. Sinopec Star has reserves of 7 tcf of gas, 1.9 tcf of which is held in the Chunxiao area.[35]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Findlay, A.G. (1889). A Directory for the Navigation of the Indian Archipelago and the Coast of China. London: Richard Holes Laurie. pp. 1135. 
  2. ↑ Navigating Lieutenant Frederick W. Jarrad, R.N. (1873). The China Sea Directory, Vol IV.. J.D.Potter for the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, London. pp. 141–142. http://books.google.com/books?id=LvoGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA141&dq=Hoa-pin-su. Retrieved 2007-06-04. 
  3. ↑ Unryu Suganuma (2000). Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 95. ISBN 0824824938. http://books.google.com/books?id=vDpEiKR2osoC&pg=PA95&dq=Pinnacle+Islands. Retrieved 2007-07-23. 
  4. ↑ Hagström, L. (2005). Japan's China Policy: A Relational Power Analysis. Oxford: Routledge. 
  5. ↑ Seokwoo Lee (2002). "Territorial Disputes among Japan, China and Taiwan concerning the Senkaku Islands". Boundary and Territory Briefing, Vol 3 No. 7.. International Boundaries Research Unit. pp. 1. 
  6. ↑ Unryu Suganuma (2000). Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 89–92. ISBN 0824824938. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 鞠, 德源. "第十一章 日本国窃踞中国海洋国土篇 - （16） 日本国窃土前后（窃土→放弃窃土→窃土再占）岛屿名称变异综览表" (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. http://72.14.235.132/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.cfdd.org.cn%2Fhtml%2Fdyd%2F11-12.html. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "钓鱼诸屿名称变异表" (in Simplified Chinese) (Doc). Archived from the original on Unknown date. http://203.208.37.104/search?q=cache:f1N9DkJ9PBYJ:bbs.1931-9-18.org/attachment.php%3Faid%3D96164+%E9%92%93%E9%B1%BC%E8%AF%B8%E5%B1%BF%E5%90%8D%E7%A7%B0%E5%8F%98%E5%BC%82%E8%A1%A8&hl=zh-CN&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=cn&st_usg=ALhdy29SvFNh1FXqN_HvzGCk-YlNyiCJJg. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
  9. ↑ Japanese Map 1
  10. ↑ Yokohata, Y. (1999). "Urgent appeal for the conservation of the natural environment in Uotsuri-jima Island in Senkaku Islands, Japan". Recent advances in the biology of Japanese Insectivora. Proceedings of the Symposium on the biology of insectivores in Japan and on the wildlife conservation. Laboratory of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Education, Toyama University. pp. 79–87. http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~rmacarth/yokohata1999.html. Retrieved 2006-12-09. 
  11. ↑ Japanese Map 2
  12. ↑ Japanese Map 3
  13. ↑ Japanese Map 4
  14. ↑ Japanese Map 6
  15. ↑ Japanese Map 7
  16. ↑ Japanese Map 8
  17. ↑ [Article II{b}], Treaty of Shimonoseki
  18. ↑ Joint Statement by President Nixon and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, 21 November 1969
  19. ↑ Military Occupation and the San Francisco Peace Treaty
  20. ↑ 鞠, 德源. "第三章钓鱼台列屿中国固有主权领土命名传承证据篇 - 丁：钓鱼台列屿中国固有主权领土历代名称沿革表 - 1" (in Chinese). 中国民间保钓联合会. Archived from the original on 2008-11-29. http://72.14.235.132/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.cfdd.org.cn%2Fhtml%2Fdyd%2F3-6.html. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
  21. ↑ "Sheng v. Rogers". DC Circuit Court. http://www.taiwanbasic.com/nstatus/shengvs.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-26. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "China's Diaoyu Islands Sovereignty is Undeniable", People's Daily, 25-05-2003. Retrieved 24-02-2007.
  23. ↑ 中國領土釣魚台, DiaoyuIslands.org. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
  24. ↑ Tzou, Byron N. (1990). China and International Law: The Boundary Disputes. Praeger/Greenwood. pp. 78. ISBN 0275934624. 
  25. ↑ "The Starr Memorandum". US State Dept.. http://www.taiwanbasic.com/nstatus/starr.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-26. 
  26. ↑ http://www.chinayj.net/StubArticle.asp?issue=970111&total=56
  27. ↑ "Lee Teng-hui arrives in Japan". Taipei Times. 2009-09.05. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2009/09/05/2003452834. Retrieved 2009-09-22. 
  28. ↑ http://english.people.com.cn/200305/25/eng20030525_117192.shtml
  29. ↑ http://akebonokikaku.hp.infoseek.co.jp/page092.html
  30. ↑ http://www.geocities.jp/tanaka_kunitaka/senkaku/testimonial1920.jpg
  31. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Shimonoseki
  32. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Taipei
  33. ↑ 「国民中学地理教科書・第四冊(Geography textbook for national junior high schools)」January, 1970
  34. ↑ A picture of the Senkaku Shinto shirine.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 GlobalSecurity.org:Senkaku
  36. ↑ (ja) Kyodo News, 17 March 2006 [1]
  37. ↑ International Herald Tribune/Associated Press, 26 October 2006 "Activist ship from Hong Kong briefly enters Japan's waters in protest over islands"
  38. ↑ (ja) Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 5 November 2006, "中国、東シナ海で軍事演習中に爆発事故"
  39. ↑ Officials drop plan to visit Diaoyutais, Taipei Times 18 June 2008; for the video footage released by the boat crew, see, for example, here
  40. ↑ "Taiwan fishing boat sunk by Japanese frigate"
  41. ↑ "Taiwan protests as Japan holds fishing boat captain"
  42. ↑ 聯合號船長晚間回國　劉揆要撤銷日本事務會 (Captain of the Lianhe returned to Taiwan tonight; Premier Liu wants to abolish Japan Affairs Association), China Times, Taipei 2008-06-13
  43. ↑ Taiwan recalls top Japan rep as tensions rise over ship collision, Japan Today 15 June 2008
  44. ↑ Officials drop plan to visit Diaoyutais, Taipei Times 18 June 2008
  45. ↑ Japan apologises over Taiwan boat incident
  46. ↑ "High-seas collisions trigger Japan-China spat". AFP. September 7, 2010. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gfux6suEvEhsCmNJgxMYAYK68ZIQ. 

References

External links