Posted on 05/16/2013 8:24:20 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
China is attempting to open a new front in its territorial dispute with Japan by questioning Tokyo's sovereignty over the island of Okinawa, home to 25,000 US troops.
The two countries are already pushing rival claims to the Senkakus, a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Tokyo. The dispute over the islands, known as the Diaoyu in China, has hit bilateral trade and sent diplomatic relations to their lowest point for decades.
Beijing began its attempt to broaden the territorial dispute earlier this month when the communist party newspaper, the People's Daily, ran an article in which two Chinese academics challenged Japan's sovereignty over the Ryukyu chain of islands, which includes Okinawa.
Luo Yuan, a two-star general in the People's Liberation Army, raised the territorial stakes again this week, saying the Ryukyus had started paying tribute to China in 1372, half a millennium before they were seized by Japan.
"Let's for now not discuss whether [the Ryukyus] belong to China, they were certainly China's tributary state," Luo said in an interview with China News Service. "I am not saying all former tributary states belong to China, but we can say with certainty that the Ryukyus do not belong to Japan," he added, in comments translated by the South China Morning Post.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
To Okinawa?!?!?!?!?
You lost me. Whose they? China or Japan?
Given the questionable loyalty of the 0bama regime, it would not be surprising to see Japan embark on a program to rapidly develop a nuclear weapon as a deterrence.
I had a Chinese friend and he would remind me from time to time that America is just a renegade province.
Gotta give it to the Chinese, they play well on the world stage. Masters at subtle escalations.
Check the history of the island...the japs took it from china about 1870...win some lose some now they want it back...which really wouldn’t be to hard
Pei-Ping
The Chinese also have a claim to Hawaii, which the US annexed in 1896:
On November 29, it was revealed that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated in a question and answer session at a speech she gave in Washington, that when the US had consulted with China about the past problems of territoriality in the South China Sea, the Chinese side had said that they could also ‘insist on (territorial rights to) Hawai’i’. To which Clinton replied, ‘Well, you’re welcome to try. Territorial rights will be settled through arbitration institutions. That is precisely the action that we want you to take’.
Wasn’t that long ago the Japanese wanted the U.S. to remove our military from Okinawa. I suppose they aren’t as anxious about us leaving now.
Sounds like China wants a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” of their own.
Interesting... the Mexicans are thinking the same thing.
Interesting. In my case, I had a Chinese friend who would often remind me that Tibet is legitimately part of China. He'd sneak that into conversations that really had nothing to do with Tibet.
I'm guessing that while the average Englishman and Frenchman do not obsess about getting old territories back, the average Chinese person thinks differently.
I think there's a faction of Okinawans who want us off - some are pro-Communist, others are sinophiles and some might just hate Uncle Sam for the same convoluted reasons that OWS protesters do.
“...Sounds like China wants a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” of their own....”
actually......
that would be correct!!!!!!
Japan wants America’s protective umbrella but no longer wants troops or Americans stationed in Japan.
Can’t have it both ways...
I guess you have to be nation for more that 300 years...(?/s)
In 1609, the Shimazu clan, which controlled the region that is now Kagoshima Prefecture, conquered the Ryūkyū Kingdom. The Ryūkyū Kingdom was obliged to agree to form a tributary relationship with the Satsuma and the Tokugawa shogunate, while maintaining its previous tributary relationship with China; Ryukyuan sovereignty was maintained since complete annexation would have created a conflict with China. The Satsuma clan earned considerable profits from trade with China during a period in which foreign trade was heavily restricted by the shogunate. A Ryukyuan embassy in Edo.Although Satsuma maintained strong influence over the islands, the Ryūkyū Kingdom maintained a considerable degree of domestic political freedom for over two hundred years. Four years after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government, through military incursions, officially annexed the kingdom and renamed it Ryukyu han. At the time, the Qing Dynasty of China asserted sovereignty over the islands of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, since the Ryūkyū Kingdom was also a tributary nation of China. Ryukyu han became Okinawa Prefecture of Japan in 1879, even though all other hans had become prefectures of Japan in 1872. In 1912, Okinawans first obtained the right to vote for representatives to the national Diet which had been established in 1890.[4]
Come get some punks. America ain’t stopping you from your froggy impulses
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