Now China Says It May Own Okinawa, Too

TBI ^ | 5-8-2013 | Agence France Presse

[blam]

Now China Says It May Own Okinawa, Too

Agence France Presse
May 8, 2013

US Sale Of Armed Drones To Japan And South Korea Would Transform Tensions In The Pacific China's top newspaper on Wednesday published a call for a review of Japan's sovereignty over the island of Okinawa -- home to major US 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 US 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.

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[Fedora]

Thanks for sharing the reminiscences. That palace visit sounds very interesting.

I think the First Taiwan Straits Crisis set a precedent for how China tested U.S. resolve after Truman elected not to use nukes in Korea and Eisenhower settled for truce in Korea and Vietnam. The American response also set a precedent for how the resurgence of Communist aggression in Laos and Vietnam would later be addressed. They will keep pushing until we push back.