Pan Zhongqi Sino Japanese Dispute Over
Sino-Japanese Dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands:
The Pending Controversy from the Chinese Perspective
ZHONGQI PAN*
The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands have brought China and Japan into a bitter dispute for many decades. With regard to the real question of who owns sovereignty over the islands, the two claimants can not come to terms on several critical issues, such as whether the islands were terra nullius when Japan claimed sovereignty in 1895, whether Japan returned the islands to China after the Japanese defeat in WWII, and how their maritime boundary in the East China Sea should be demarcated according to international law. There is no ready solution to the longstanding stalemate, but the pending dispute could be shelved and managed from escalating into a military conflict.
Key words: Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, Maritime Disputes, East China Sea, Sino-Japanese relations, Law of the Sea
INTRODUCTION
The Diaoyu Islands in Chinese or Senkaku in Japanese are a tiny group of islands, 6.3 km² in total, in the East China Sea. The islands consist of eight tiny insular formations, of which only two are over 1 km² (the Diaoyu/Uotsuri Island is the biggest one with 4.3 km²), five are completely barren, and none are currently inhabited or have had any kind of reported human economic activity.
Notwithstanding these unfriendly natural features, the islands have brought
China and Japan into a bitter dispute since 1960’s because of their strategic importance in terms of security and economy, as well as their significant political implications. The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands are located approximately midway between the island of Taiwan and the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, around 120 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan, 200 nautical miles southwest of Okinawa, and 230 nautical miles east of China mainland. This particular location of the Diaoyu/Senkaku
Islands makes them special to both China and Japan’s national defense. Should either China or Japan legally secured the sovereignty over the
The Pending Controversy from the Chinese Perspective
ZHONGQI PAN*
The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands have brought China and Japan into a bitter dispute for many decades. With regard to the real question of who owns sovereignty over the islands, the two claimants can not come to terms on several critical issues, such as whether the islands were terra nullius when Japan claimed sovereignty in 1895, whether Japan returned the islands to China after the Japanese defeat in WWII, and how their maritime boundary in the East China Sea should be demarcated according to international law. There is no ready solution to the longstanding stalemate, but the pending dispute could be shelved and managed from escalating into a military conflict.
Key words: Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, Maritime Disputes, East China Sea, Sino-Japanese relations, Law of the Sea
INTRODUCTION
The Diaoyu Islands in Chinese or Senkaku in Japanese are a tiny group of islands, 6.3 km² in total, in the East China Sea. The islands consist of eight tiny insular formations, of which only two are over 1 km² (the Diaoyu/Uotsuri Island is the biggest one with 4.3 km²), five are completely barren, and none are currently inhabited or have had any kind of reported human economic activity.
Notwithstanding these unfriendly natural features, the islands have brought
China and Japan into a bitter dispute since 1960’s because of their strategic importance in terms of security and economy, as well as their significant political implications. The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands are located approximately midway between the island of Taiwan and the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, around 120 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan, 200 nautical miles southwest of Okinawa, and 230 nautical miles east of China mainland. This particular location of the Diaoyu/Senkaku
Islands makes them special to both China and Japan’s national defense. Should either China or Japan legally secured the sovereignty over the