So far, much of the discussion of
China's air-defense identification zone (
ADIZ), a new law requiring foreign aircraft to notify
China when they fly over a designated region in the
East China Sea, has centered on
Beijing's motivations:
What is China trying to accomplish by instituting the zone? And, considering that it triggered immediate opposition from the
United States and
Japan, was this decision a mistake?
These are important questions, but it's worth zooming out and considering the more fundamental causes for tension in
Northeast Asia. Here, the issues become more complex. Is China's aggression caused by a new president trying to establish his legitimacy? Or is it, instead, an attempt to capitalize on domestic anti-Japanese sentiment?
Does the conflict reflect how pre-World War II history continues to shape contemporary
East Asian relations? Or is it a scramble for the rich energy resources that supposedly lie inside the disputed waters?
The answer to each of these questions is, unhelpfully, yes. And that's what makes the present conflict in Northeast Asia so difficult to resolve.
The territorial dispute between China and Japan, concerning a group of islands called the Senkakus in
Japanese (and the Diaoyu in
Chinese), is hardly unusual in a crowded region with many competing interests. Since the establishment of the
People's Republic in 1949, China has resolved border disagreements with nearly all of its neighbors, but still has outstanding disputes with
India (over
Arunachal Pradesh) and several
Southeast Asian countries (over the
Spratly and
Paracel Islands). Japan, too, is engaged in an ongoing spat with
South Korea over the
Takeshima Islands, known as
Dokdo in
Korean.
The disagreement over the
Senkaku/Diaoyu islands began in
1971, when, after sovereignty reverted from
American to Japanese control (a legacy
from the postwar Treaty of San Francisco that gave the
U.S. jurisdiction over some
Japanese territory), both
China and Taiwan claimed ownership. But it is only in the last decade that the conflict has escalated beyond a regional issue and has attracted widespread international concern. Why has the island dispute turned into such a problem?
Since the conclusion of the
Second World War, the countries in Northeast Asia have undergone perhaps the fastest, most impressive modernization process in world history. And yet, the political legacy from that conflict—and the years preceding it—continue to shape present-day relations between China,
Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
Beijing,
Seoul, and many other
Asian countries feel that
Tokyo has not adequately atoned for its behavior during the first half of the
20th century, when Japan dominated the continent through its "co-prosperity sphere." However, Japanese conservatives dispute this claim and argue that, to the contrary, Tokyo has apologized enough, and ought to revisit its infamous "anti-defense" article of its constitution.
Meanwhile, China's three decades of sustained economic growth has lifted its confidence in asserting its historical dominance in the region, which over the past two centuries had eroded due to weakness, division, and foreign incursion. And as Beijing's military has grown and modernized, the government has become more assertive in enforcing territorial claims
. In the East China Sea, these claims entail all maritime territory within a "nine-dash line" enveloping offshore land claimed by nearly every other coastal country in the region.
The development of the Senkaku/Diaoyu crisis serves as a useful example.
Last year
Shintaro Ishihara, the right-wing governor of Tokyo, announced at the
Heritage Foundation that he wished to purchase three of the five islands from their private owner. Alarmed, the Japanese national government purchased the islands instead, hoping that by keeping them out of Ishihara's control, they'd defuse a potential crisis with China. The ploy backfired. According to Goto, "
The Chinese have been very upset by the fact that the islands were passed from one owner to another when the Chinese feel they have very legitimate claims to the islands."
Sino-japanese dispute over small island in east china sea 中國軍事對日關係探秘釣魚島周邊,for more information about china world news visit site at
http://youtube.com/user/cosmeticmachines as well as business website at http://penglaichina.com
- published: 15 Jan 2016
- views: 136