Analysis: Why China rolled out the red carpet for Okinawa governor

It was July 5 in Beijing and Chinese Premier Li Qiang was meeting with a delegation from Japan led by a former speaker of Japan's House of Representatives who has also served as minister of foreign affairs.

But it was Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki and not Yohei Kono who during a photo session was accorded a place of honor. While pictures were being taken, Tamaki stood to Li's left, while Kono stood to Li's right, a positioning that says much about China's intentions.

Tamaki's visit to Beijing as well as to Fuzhou, on the coast of Fujian province, opposite Taiwan, had sent China's "private opinion space" abuzz with questions about "Okinawan independence."

Many Chinese netizens are arguing for independence of "Ryukyu" -- the Okinawa islands used to be known as the Ryukyu Kingdom -- believing such an outcome would give China a huge victory.

This "private opinion space," as it is known in China, includes articles, commentaries and images on the internet that are accepted by the Chinese Communist Party's Publicity Department, which controls all official media outlets in the country.

An expert familiar with Sino-Japanese relations, including Okinawa's push for regional exchanges, said China rolled out the red carpet for Gov. Tamaki at the initiative of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li.

"It is safe to say," the source said, "that the real guest of honor was not President Yohei Kono but Gov. Tamaki, who expresses objections to security policies of [Japanese Prime Minister Fumio] Kishida's administration involving Taiwan."

China's hosting of Tamaki might also be the second act of a Chinese drama. The first came on June 1, when Xi inspected the China National Archives of Publications and Culture in the suburbs of Beijing. While there, Xi referred to the history of exchanges between Fuzhou and the Ryukyu Kingdom.

The Ryukyu Kingdom existed for 450 years, from 1429 to 1879, and had deep relations with China.

Xi spent from 1990 to 2002 in Fuzhou. During that period, he served as Fuzhou's top official and later became the governor of Fujian, the province's No. 2 post.

While in China, Tamaki also visited Fuzhou, which is home to the Ryukyu-Kan, a facility that symbolizes exchanges between Ryukyu and China's Ming and Qing dynasties. A photo of Xi taken during his time in Fuzhou is on display at the Ryukyu-Kan.

To cause division in Japan.

2 posted on 07/13/2023 7:55:16 PM PDT by Jonty30 (If liberals were truth tellers, they'd call themselves literals. )

To cause division in Japan.

Classic maneuver. kind of like Ukraine, Syria, Serbia, Iraq.

I hope no one tries it here.

Oh wait. Obama already did.

The Japanese didn’t even consider them Japanese. Took out 5 thousand of them in the war. They were ‘in the way’.

4 posted on 07/13/2023 9:09:22 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (e allowed )

” Took out 5 thousand of them in the war. “

That is a very conservative number .

Still wondering about the assassination of Shinzo Abe...

6 posted on 07/14/2023 3:02:24 AM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)

I hadn’t realized that Okinawa wasn’t part of Japan when Commodore Perry “opened up” Japan and started them on the path to empire building.

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