Posted on 05/08/2013 5:46:50 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
China’s top newspaper on Wednesday published a call for a review of Japan’s sovereignty over the island of Okinawa—home to major U.S. bases—with the Asian powers already embroiled in a territorial row.
The lengthy article in the People’s Daily, China’s most-circulated newspaper and the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist party, argued that the country may have rights to the Ryukyu chain, which includes Okinawa.
The island is home to major U.S. air force and marine bases as well as 1.3 million people, who are considered more closely related to Japan in ethnic and linguistic terms than to China.
The authors of the article, two scholars at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, considered China’s top state-run think-tank, said the Ryukyus were a “vassal state” of China before Japan annexed the islands in the late 1800s.
“Unresolved problems relating to the Ryukyu Islands have reached the time for reconsideration,” wrote Zhang Haipeng and Li Guoqiang, citing post-World War II declarations that required Japan to return Chinese territory.
The article also repeated Chinese government arguments for China’s historical claims over a set of tiny uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.
The two nations have stepped up a war of words over the dispute in recent months, with Beijing’s vessels regularly entering the waters around the Tokyo-controlled islands, stoking fears of armed conflict.
Questions over Japan’s right to Okinawa were probably aimed at raising the stakes in the East China Sea dispute, said Willy Lam, an expert on Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“I think this is psychological warfare,” he said, adding: “The major point is to put pressure on Japan so that the Japanese administration will be forced to make concessions over the Senkaku islands.”
Okinawa is the biggest of the Ryukyu islands, which stretch for about 1,000 kilometers from Japan’s mainland, and were the center of the Ryukyuan kingdom that paid tribute to Chinese emperors until it was absorbed by Japan in 1879.
But some Chinese see historical ties as a basis for sovereignty and dismiss Japan’s possession of the islands as a legacy of its aggressive expansionism that ended in defeat at the end of World War II.
China’s government does not make such claims, but state media have from time to time carried articles and commentaries questioning Japan’s authority.
China is also in dispute with southeast Asian neighbors over huge swathes of the South China Sea, which it claims based on a map published in the 1940s.
Analysts have said that Beijing is growing increasingly assertive in pressing its territorial claims, while nations across Asia have invested massively in upgrading their naval capacity.
They don't become any more competitive of course - they become less competitive because they become acclimated to an environment where the Government picks winners and losers on the basis of union membership and green ideology.
Fortunately economic reality is bigger even than the US Government. When the Dollar Federal Reserve Note's reserve status is lost then the resulting horrific train-wreck should have at least one salutary effect - the Government's ability to endlessly buck reality will have been destroyed.
And China will rule.
Wake up, and stop working to destroy America.
We need America stronger. Now.
When you view foreigners as barbarians there’s really only two options. Avoid them or attack them.
The key step in doing this would be to bring government spending outside of defense back to where it was 100 years ago, 4% of the economy. Last year, the Federal government spent 19% on non-defense items.
Agreed strongly.
The thing is, the more jobs we have here, the less we spend.
See how that works? :)
Most of it runs through mountainous terrain. A veritable playground for tactical attack aircraft flying under the radar, and SOF teams passing intel. Tibetan insurgents could be funded to bring down rock slides and avalanches.
... and you bring back the jobs by making America an attractive place for capital.
Right now America is a minefield for capital. Many parts of your country are pure poison as far as wealth-production goes.
IIRC it costs a cool billion dollars more to build a factory in California than in South Korea solely due to legal and EPA burdens.
Whereas Texas welcomes wealth-producers. It's no accident that Texas is doing well.
Eagle diesel is making a difference to industry relocation - but places like California won't see any improvement. This is because the California state is full of Marxist bandits ready to mug anyone who dares create wealth in their fiefdom.
Who knows?
They might even give it some happy name like “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”.
That would be ironic, since Japan’s invasion of China was one of the compelling reasons for FDR’s policy towards Japan.
I’m pretty-sure they wouldn’t use that exact name, given it’s origins, but they would use something similar.
China’s Gold Purchases From Hong Kong Expand to Record: 223 Tons in MARCH ALONE
So Japan’s top newspaper should publish an article about re-establishing the vassal state of Manchouko...
Just saying...
I’m glad I enjoyed a few great years on that wonderful island.
... but maybe I haven't checked for a long time ...
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