Senkaku Islands

"Diaoyutai" redirects here. For the Chinese state guesthouse, see Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

Senkaku Islands

Other names	Japanese: 尖閣諸島 Chinese: 釣魚台列嶼; Chinese: 钓鱼台群岛 Pinnacle Islands
Geography
Location	Pacific Ocean
Coordinates	25°47′53″N 124°03′21″E
Administration
Japan

The Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島, Senkaku Shotō, variants: Senkaku-guntō and Senkaku-rettō), also known as the Diaoyu Islands or Diaoyutai Islands (simplified Chinese: 钓鱼台群岛; traditional Chinese: 釣魚台群島; pinyin: Diàoyútái Qúndǎo), or the Pinnacle Islands, are a group of disputed uninhabited islands controlled and administered by Japan since 1895, but also claimed by both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China as part of Taiwan Province, Toucheng Township in Yilan County since 1971. The United States controlled the islands as part of its occupation of Okinawa from 1945 to 1972.

The islands are located roughly northeast of Taiwan, due west of Okinawa, and due north of the southwestern end of the Ryukyu Islands in the East China Sea.

The islands are a major issue in foreign relations between Japan and the PRC and between Japan and the ROC. The Japanese government regards these islands as a part of Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture. Despite the complexity of relations between the two states, both the governments of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and People's Republic of China agree that the islands are part of Taiwan.

Names

The first recorded name of the islands, Diaoyu, used in books such as Voyage with a Tail Wind (simplified Chinese: 顺风相送; traditional Chinese: 順風相送; pinyin: Shǜnfēng Xiāngsòng) and Record of the Imperial Envoy's Visit to Ryūkyū (simplified Chinese: 使琉球录; traditional Chinese: 使琉球錄; pinyin: Shĭ Liúqiú Lù) dates back to the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 CE). Adopted by the Chinese Imperial Map of the Ming Dynasty, both the Chinese name for the island group (Diaoyu) and the Japanese name for the main island (Uotsuri) both literally mean "angling".

In 1884, the English name Pinnacle Islands was used by the British navy for the rocks adjacent to, but not including, the largest island Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyu Dao (then called Hoa-pin-su). Neither Kuba Jima/Huangwei Yu (then called Ti-a-usu) nor Taishō Jima/Chiwei Yu (then called "Raleigh Rock") were considered part of the Pinnacle Islands. However, in recent years the name "Pinnacle Islands" has come to be used to refer to the entire island group, as an English-language equivalent to "Diaoyu" or "Senkaku".

In 1900, when Tsune Kuroiwa, a teacher at the Okinawa Prefecture Normal School, visited the islands, he adopted the name Senkaku Retto (simplified Chinese: 尖阁列岛; traditional Chinese: 尖閣列島; pinyin: Jiāngéliè Dăo), literally Pinnacle Islands, to refer the whole island group, based on the British name. The first official document recording the name Senkaku Retto was by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nihon Gaiko Monjo (日本外交文書, Documents on Japanese Foreign Relations) in the 1950s. In Japanese, Sentō Shosho (尖頭諸嶼) and Senkaku Shosho (尖閣諸嶼) were translations used for these "Pinnacle Islands" by various Japanese sources. Subsequently, the entire island group (including Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyu Dao and all the others) came to be called Senkaku Rettō, which later evolved into Senkaku Shotō.

Geography

Bei Xiaodao/Kita Kojima (left) and Nan Xiaodao/Minami Kojima (right)

The islands sit on the edge of the continental shelf of mainland Asia, and are separated from the Ryukyu Islands by the Okinawa Trough. They are 140 kilometers east of Pengjia Islet/Agincourt, Taiwan; 170 kilometers (106 mi) north of Ishigaki Island, Japan; 186 km (116 mi) northeast of Keelung, Taiwan; and 410 km (255 mi) west of Okinawa Island.

Aerial view of Diaoyu Dao/Uotsuri Jima

Japan put these islets under the administration of Okinawa whereas the People's Republic of China and Republic of China (Taiwan) see it as a part of Taiwan.

Diaoyu Dao/Uotsuri Jima , the largest island, has a number of endemic species such as the Mogera uchidai and Okinawa-kuro-oo-ari ant, but these have become threatened by domestic goats that were introduced to the island in 1978 and whose population has increased to over 300 since that time.

Amongst all islands, Nan Xiaodao/ Minami Kojima is one of the few breeding places of the rare Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus).

List of Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands

Chinese name	Japanese name	coordinates	Area(km2)	Highest elevation(m)
Diaoyu Dao (釣魚島)	Uotsuri Jima (魚釣島)	25°46′N 123°31′E	4.32	383
Huangwei Yu (黃尾嶼)	Kuba Jima (久場島)	25°56′N 123°41′E	1.08	117
Chiwei Yu (赤尾嶼)	Taishō Jima (大正島)	25°55′N 124°34′E	0.0609	75
Nan Xiaodao(南小島)	Minami Kojima (南小島)	25°45′N 123°36′E	0.4592	149
Bei Xiaodao(北小島)	Kita Kojima (北小島)	25°45′N 123°36′E	0.3267	135
Da Bei Xiaodao(大北小島)	Okino Kitaiwa(沖ノ北岩)	25°49′N 123°36′E	0.0183	-
Da Nan Xiaodao (大南小島)	Okino Minami-iwa(沖ノ南岩)	25°47′N 123°37′E	0.0048	-
Fei Jiao Yan(飛礁岩)	Tobise (飛瀬) or Tobishou (飛礁, (past name))	25°45′N 123°33′E	0.0008	-

Territorial dispute

Main article: Senkaku Islands dispute

Beginnings

Following the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji Japanese government formally annexed what was known as the Ryukyu Kingdom as Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. The Senkaku Islands, which lie between Ryukyu Kingdom and Qing empire, became the Sino-Japanese boundary for the first time.

In 1885, the Japanese Governor of Okinawa Prefecture, Nishimura Sutezo, petitioned the Meji government asking that it take formal control of the Senkaku Islands. However, Inoue Kaoru, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, commented that the islands lay near to the border area with the Qing empire and that they had been given Chinese names. An article in a Chinese newspaper had previously claimed that Japan was occupying islands off China's coast. Inoue was concerned that if Japan proceeded to erect a landmark stating its claim to the islands, it would make the Qing empire suspicious. Following Inoue's advice, Yamagata Aritomo, the Minister of the Interior turned down the request to incorporate the islands, insisting that this matter should not be "revealed to the news media".

On 14 January 1895, during the Sino-Japanese War, Japan officially incorporated the islands under the administration of Okinawa, stating that it had conducted surveys since 1884 and that the islands were terra nullius (Latin: no man's land), with there being no evidence to suggest that they had been under Qing empire's control.

After China lost the war both countries signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895 that stipulated, among other things, that China would cede to Japan "the island of Formosa together with all islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa (Taiwan)". There is a disagreement between the Japanese, PRC and ROC (Taiwan) governments as to whether the Senkaku Islands are implied to be part of the "islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa".

In 1969, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) indicated the possibility of large oil and gas reserves around the Senkaku Islands. In the same year, the US expressed its intention to hand over Okinawa and its surrounding islands (including the Senkaku Islands), occupied since the end of World War II to Japan.

Subsequently, both the PRC and ROC (Taiwan) governments have protested and asserted their claim to sovereignty over the islands. The ROC (Taiwan) made an official announcement to this effect on 11 June 1971, followed by the PRC on 30 December. However, the United States handed over the Senkaku Islands to Japan on 15 May 1972. Since 1971, the sovereignty over Senkaku islands had claimed by Japan, the PRC & ROC though Japan had controlled those islands actually.

However, after Japan lost the Second world war in 1945, the Treaty of San Francisco was signed between Japan and part of the Allied Powers in 1951. The document nullifies prior treaties and lays down the framework for Japan's current status of retaining a military that is purely defensive in nature. Japanese government argues that the disputed islands were not implied to be part of the "islands appertaining or belonging to said island of Formosa" in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Arguments from PRC and ROC

A 1785 Japanese map, the Sangoku tsūran zusetsu (三国通覧図説) by Hayashi Shihei adopted the Chinese kanji (釣魚臺 Diaoyutai) to annotate the disputed islands, which were painted in the same color as China. The primary text itself can be found here.

The two governments state that the islands were known to China at least since the Ming Dynasty (and possibly as early as 770 BC – 221 BC, based on a passage in the Shan Hai Jing, chapter "Haineibei jing"), and were controlled by the Qing Dynasty along with Taiwan.

Between 1895 and 1945, Japan administered the islands as part of Taiwan. However, more importantly, none of the Allies recognized any transfer of the territorial sovereignty of either Taiwan or any nearby islands to the ROC at any time during the 1940s or 1950s. In a 1959 court case in the United States, the US State Dept. was specifically quoted as maintaining that: " . . . the sovereignty of Formosa has not been transferred to China . . . " and that "Formosa is not a part of China as a country, at least not as yet, and not until and unless appropriate treaties are hereafter entered into. Formosa may be said to be a territory or an area occupied and administered by the Government of the Republic of China, but is not officially recognized as being a part of the Republic of China."

After World War II, due to the civil war between competing PRC and ROC factions in China, both parties did not place their focus on the islands to avoid further disputes.

From 1945 to 1971, the Chinese held undefined positions on the sovereignty and administration on the islands. In 1971, when the US expressed its intention to hand over the disputed islands to Japan, both the PRC and ROC governments protested and reiterated their claimed sovereignty over the islands.

The PRC and ROC claim that the islands were within the Ming Dynasty's sea-defense area and are a part of Taiwan. According to the Chinese, China's sovereignty over the islands is dated to the early 15^th century, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty. The name Diaoyutai first appeared in 1403 in the Chinese book Voyage with the Tail Wind (順風相送), which recorded the names of the islands that voyagers had passed on a trip from Fujian to the Ryukyu Kingdom. By 1534, all the major islets of the island group had been identified and named in the book Record of the Imperial Envoy's Visit to Ryukyu (使琉球錄).

From 1624 until 1662, Taiwan and some of its surrounding islands, though not the Senkaku Islands, were controlled by the Dutch as a base for commerce. In 1662, the Dutch were driven out by ex-Ming Dynasty general Zheng Chenggong (more popularly known as Koxinga). Zheng Chenggong and his successors established the Kingdom of Tungning and controlled the area until 1683. In the same year, Zheng's grandson Zheng Keshuang was defeated by Qing Dynasty forces led by Admiral Shi Lang. From then on, Qing Dynasty China gained effective control over Taiwan and its surrounding islands, including the islands in dispute today.

After losing the First Sino-Japanese War, Qing China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki on 17 April 1895. This Unequal Treaty ceded Taiwan and its surrounding islands to Japan. The PRC and ROC governments see the disputed islands as having been included in the islands ceded to Japan by the treaty, because of the historical evidence discussed above, even though the Treaty did not explicitly enumerate all the islands ceded under it.

On this basis, they argue that they have sovereignty over the islands for two reasons. First, they claim that the islands are still part of Taiwan Province of China. Secondly, that since the disputed islands were ceded along with Taiwan in 1895, therefore when Japan returned to China all territories it had obtained from China since the First Sino-Japanese War at the end of World War II, the disputed islands were returned along with Taiwan to China.

However, the United States, as principal victor over Japan, has consistently maintained that there was no "return" of island territories to China after the close of hostilities in World War II, either due to the Japanese surrender ceremonies, or according to the specifications of the post-war treaties. The Starr Memorandum of the US State Dept., issued in Oct. 1971, is often quoted as an authoritative reference on this subject. In September 2010 Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asian Affairs Jeffrey Bader said that, "we do not take a position on the respective territorial claims of China and Japan towards the Senkaku Islands. But... the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty covers all areas administered by Japan, and since the reversion of Okinawa from the U.S. to Japan in 1972, the Senkaku Islands have been administered by Japan."

Japanese government's argument

File:1953renminribao.GIF

An article published by Renmin Ribao at 1953. It refers to the islets as the "Senkaku islands in Okinawa".

Japan's stance is that there is no territorial issue that needs to be resolved over the Senkaku.

The key points of Japan's claim for the Senkaku Islands are as follows:

1. The islands had been uninhabited and showed no trace of having been under the control of China prior to 1895.
2. The islands were neither part of Taiwan nor part of the Pescadores Islands, which were ceded to Japan by the Qing Dynasty of China in Article II of the May 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, thus were not later renounced by Japan under Article II of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
3. Though the islands were controlled by the United States as an occupying power of Japan between 1945 and 1972, since 1972 Japan has exercised administration over the islands.
4. According to Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, an edition of the Communist Party of China-controlled People's Daily published 8 January 1953 described the islands as part of Japan's territory as did a world atlas published in China in 1960, with competing claims to the islands only appearing after 1970 when natural resources in the area were attracting attention.

Non-governmental arguments

A letter from the Republic of China (中華民國) consul to Nagasaki written on May 20, 1921. The letter referred to "Senkaku Islands, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture, the Empire of Japan".

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The Washington Times claims that this is a classified PRC government map from 1969 and that it lists the "Senkaku islands" as Japanese territory.

During a private visit 9 years after stepping down from office, former President of Republic of China, Lee Teng-hui, once said that the Senkaku Islands are part of Okinawa.

After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government conducted surveys of the islands beginning in 1885, which found that the islands were terra nullius (Latin: no man's land) and that there was no evidence to suggest that they had ever been under Chinese control. At the time of this survey, however, Yamagata Aritomo, the minister of interior of the Meji government, put off the request to incorporate the islands, saying that those islands lay near the Sino-Japanese boundary and already had Chinese names.

On 14 January 1895, Japan formally incorporated the islands into its territory, during the First Sino-Japanese War, three months before its military victory and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japan erected a marker on Kubajima and Uotsurijima to formally incorporate them as its territory. This decision was publicized in 1950. Four of the islands were subsequently developed by Koga Tatsushirō (古賀 辰四郎) and his family, with the permission of the Japanese government.

Japanese scholars claim that neither China nor Ryukyu had recognized sovereignty over the uninhabited islands. Therefore, they claim that Chinese documents only prove that Kumejima, the first inhabited island reached by the Chinese, belonged to Okinawa. Kentaro Serita (芹田 健太郎) of Kobe University points out that the official history book of the Ming Dynasty compiled during the Qing Dynasty, called the History of Ming (明史), describes Taiwan in its "Biographies of Foreign Countries" (外国列传) section. Thus, China did not control the Senkaku Islands or Taiwan during the Ming Dynasty. The contrary viewpoint is that this evidence goes only to verify that the early Qing Dynasty (which compiled the book) saw Taiwan and its surrounding islands as outside its territory. For 39 years between the end of the Ming Dynasty and the conquest of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty, Taiwan was ruled by a separate regime, the Kingdom of Tungning, which swore loyalty to the Ming. Such evidence is thus not relevant to the Qing Dynasty's attitude towards the islands after its conquest of Taiwan.

After a number of Chinese were rescued from a shipwreck in 1920, a letter purportedly sent to Japanese fishermen by the Chinese Consul Feng Mien (冯冕/馮冕) in Nagasaki on behalf of the Republic of China (中華民國) on May 20, 1921, reference was made to "Senkaku Islands, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture, the Empire of Japan". The letter is on exhibition at Yaeyama museum.

The Washington Times claims that there is a classified map made by the PRC's map authority in 1969 and further claims that it lists the "Senkaku Islands" as Japanese territory.

In his book Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations: Irredentism and the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, Suganuma claims that a World Atlas published in October 1965 by the National Defense Research Academy and the China Geological Research Institute of Taiwan records the Diaoyu Islands with Japanese names: Gyochojima (Diaoyu Islands), Taishojima (Chiwei Island), and Senkaku Gunto. In the late 1970s, the government of ROC began to recall these books, but it was too late.

In the journal Boundary & Territory Briefing, Lee writes that a world atlas published in November 1958, by the Map Publishing Company of Beijing, treats the Senkaku Islands as a Japanese territory. He also writes that a state-prescribed textbook published in 1970 in Taiwan treated the islands as Japanese territories.

Japan claims that after World War II, the islands came under the United States occupation of Okinawa. During this period, the United States and the Ryūkyū Government administered the islands and the US Navy used Kuba-jima and Taisho-jima as maneuver areas. In 1972, sovereignty over Okinawa, and arguably the surrounding islands, was handed back to Japan as the United States Military Government terminated its jurisdiction over territories originally specified in Article 3 of the Treaty of San Francisco.

From 1895 to 1940, there was a Katsuobushi (fish flakes) factory and about 200 Japanese resident on the islands. In 1978, a Japanese nationalist group, Nihonseinensha built a lighthouse on Uotsuri Jima, which was subsequently handed over to the Japanese government in 2005.

Historical events

• 1971: The Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) claim sovereignty
• 1972: The US return back Senkaku islands to Japan as part of Okinawa
• 1978: The Japan Youth Association set up a lighthouse on the main island.
• 14 July 1996: The Japan Youth Association builds a 5 m high, solar-powered, aluminum lighthouse on another island.
• 14 September 1996: a US State Department spokesman referred to the US's neutral position on the Senkaku Islands issue.
• 26 September 1996: David Chan (陳毓祥), a Hong Kong protester, drowns near the islets, after leaping off one of the protest vessels with several companions with the object of symbolizing Chinese claim of sovereignty.
• 7 October 1996: Protesters plant the flags of the ROC and the PRC on the main island, but are later removed by the Japanese.
• 9 April 1999: US Ambassador to Japan Thomas S. Foley said "we are not, as far as I understand, taking a specific position in the dispute.... we do not assume that there will be any reason to engage the security treaty in any immediate sense."
• 20 April 2000: Senkaku Shinto shrine (尖閣神社) was established on Uotsuri Jima/Diaoyudao.
• April 2002: The Japanese government leased Uotsuri and other islands from their private owners.
• 24 March 2004: A group of Chinese activists from the PRC planned to stay on the Islands for three days. The seven people who landed on the islands were arrested by the Japanese for illegal entry. The Japanese Foreign Ministry forwarded a complaint to the PRC government, but the PRC in turn demanded the release of the activists. They were then sent to Japan and deported from there. Japan subsequently stated that it would prohibit anybody from landing on the islands without prior permission.
• 24 March 2004: Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman at the US State Department said "The U.S. does not take a position on the question of the ultimate sovereignty of the Senkaku Diaoyu Islands."
• February 2005: Japan planned to take ownership of a privately-owned lighthouse on Uotsuri, after it was offered to them by the owner, a fisherman living on Ishigaki, Okinawa. The lighthouse is expected to be managed by the Japanese Coast Guard.
• 23 April 2004: a member of a Japanese right-wing group rammed a bus into the Chinese consulate in Osaka, to protest Chinese claims.
• July 2004: Japan started exploring for natural gas in what it considers its own exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea as a step to counter China's building of a natural gas complex nearby. Japan plans to survey a 30-kilometer-wide band stretching between latitudes 28 and 30 degrees North, just inside the border demarcated by Japan. China disputes Japan's rights to explore the area east of the median line between the two countries, which Japan has proposed as the demarcation line for their exclusive economic zones.
• July 2004: a group of Chinese held a police-approved demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing afternoon to protest Japan's "illegal" oil exploration activities in a disputed area of the East China Sea. The protesters, organized by Beijing-based organization called the Patriots Alliance Network, shouted slogans for about an hour, during which two embassy staff members came out to take the group's written statement.
• 10 February 2005: On Voice of America, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said that Japan's new assertiveness is in line with the desires of many Japanese politicians to take their country beyond its post-World War Two reliance on the United States. "It's a question of the evolution of Japanese thinking on its own. Japan has made it clear they want to resolve all of the territorial disputes by diplomatic means and that's certainly something that we agree with. Our kind of getting in the middle of it is probably not the most productive way to proceed."
• June 2005: The ROC dispatched a ROCN frigate into disputed waters (but did not go as far as the islands) after Taiwanese fishing vessels were harassed by Japanese patrol boats. The frigate, which was carrying Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng and ROC Defense Minister Lee Jye, was not challenged and returned to Taiwan without incident. Fisheries talks between Taipei and Tokyo were held in July, but did not cover sovereignty issues.
• 17 March 2006: Kyodo News reported the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, presented that he considered "the Islands as territory of Japan" in his talk in Tokyo.
• 27 October 2006: A group of activists from Hong Kong, the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, including Tsang Kin Shing and several members of the April Fifth Action, approached the islands in order to show the support for Chinese claims to the Senkakus. They were stopped from landing on the islands by the Japan Coast Guard. Later on, the PLAN conducted a military exercise in the area.
• 16 April 2008: two PLAAF J-10A multi-role fighter peremptorily intercepted a Japanese P-3C anti-submarine and reconnaissance airplane that was flying closely above the Senkaku Islands. The two J-10 fighters were suspected of protecting Chinese nuclear submarines that were operating in that area.
• 8 September 2008: Two Chinese coast guard vessels started routine patrol within 12 kilometers of Senkaku Islands in order to declare the Senkaku Islands as Chinese territory.
• 10 June 2008: The 270 ton sport fishing vessel Lien Ho of Taiwan suffered a collision with the Japanese patrol vessel Koshiki and subsequently sank while in the disputed territorial waters that have been claimed by Japan and Taiwan. The Taiwanese crew who were aboard the vessel claims that the larger Japanese frigate deliberately crashed into them; their assertions are backed up by recently released video footage. While releasing the passengers, Japan initially detained the captain and sought reparations. The captain has now been released and has returned to Taiwan. Liu Chao-shiuan, Premier of the Republic of China, has refused to rule out the use of force to defend the islands against Japanese advances. The ROC government recalled its chief representative to Japan in protest. On June 16, a boat carrying activists from Taiwan, defended by five Republic of China Coast Guard vessels, approached to within 0.4 nautical miles (740 m) of the main island, from which position they circumnavigated the island in an assertion of sovereignty of the islands. This demonstration has prompted Taiwanese politicians to cancel a planned trip on-board Republic of China Navy vessels to demonstrate sovereignty. The Taiwanese vessels were followed by Japanese Coast Guard vessels, but no attempt was made to intercept them. On June 20, the de-facto Japanese ambassador to Taiwan apologized, in person, to the captain of the Taiwanese boat Lien Ho.
• 7 September 2010: A Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats in disputed waters near the islands. The collisions occurred after the Japanese Coast Guard ordered the trawler to stop fishing. After the collisions, Japanese sailors boarded the Chinese vessel and arrested the captain Zhan Qixiong.
• 18 September 2010: 79th anniversary of the Mukden Incident, widespread anti-Japanese protests held in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shenyang.
• 22 Chinese premier Wen Jiabao threatens further action if the captain of the Chinese fishing trawler is not released.
• 24 September 2010: Japan decided to release the captain of the Chinese fishing trawler involved in the collision incident.
• 25 September 2010: China demanded an apology and compensation from Japan for holding the Chinese boat captain in the collision incident. Japan rejected the Chinese demand.
• 27 September 2010: Japan said they would counter-claim against China for damage to their patrol boats in the collision.
• November 2010: Media reports claim joint USA/Japan drill to be held for reclaiming the islands.

Oil drilling dispute

Japan has objected to Chinese development of natural gas resources in the East China Sea in an area where the two countries Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims overlap. Japan claims a division of the EEZ on the median line between the countries' coastlines. About 40,000 square kilometers of EEZ are in dispute. China and Japan both claim 200 nautical miles EEZ rights, but the East China Sea width is only 360 nautical miles. China claims an EEZ extending to the eastern end of the Chinese continental shelf which goes deep into the Japanese EEZ beyond the median line.

The specific development in dispute is China's drilling in the Chunxiao field, which is three miles west of the median line, but which Japan contends may be tapping natural gas reserves which extend past the median line. The Chunxiao gas field in Xihu Sag in the East China Sea is estimated to hold reserves of more than 1.6 tcf of natural gas and is expected to become a major producer in the next ten years. Commercial operation was expected to begin in mid-2005 at a production rate of 70 bcf per year, rising to 282 bcf by 2010. Sinopec Star has reserves of 7 tcf of gas, 1.9 tcf of which is held in the Chunxiao area.

See also

• Sino-Japanese relations
• China Federation for Defending the Diaoyu Islands
• Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands
• History of Japan
• History of China
• History of Taiwan
• Okinotorishima
• Spratly Islands
• Paracel Islands

References

• Suganuma, Unryu. Sovereign rights and territorial space in Sino-Japanese relations: Irredentism and the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Honolulu: Association for Asian Studies and University of Hawaii Press, 2000.
• John Donaldson and Alison Williams "Understanding Maritime Jurisdictional Disputes: The East China Sea and Beyond" Journal of International Affairs Fall/Winter 2005, vol. 59, no.1
• Note, Alexander M. Peterson "Sino-Japanese Cooperation in the East China Sea: A Lasting Arrangement?" 42 Cornell International Law Journal 441 (2009).

External links

• Diaoyu Islands-China's Indisputable Territory.Foreign Affairs University
• Basic View on Senkaku (by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Article by Kiyoshi Inoue Professor of History department Kyoto University
• Senkaku @BBC
• "Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands". Globalsecurity.org.
• Law School Article by William Heflin
• "China's Diaoyu Islands Sovereignty is Undeniable" at People's Daily Online
• Diaoyutai History (in Chinese)
• Satellite image of Senkaku Islands
• Alexander M. Peterson's 2009 Note in the Cornell International Law Journal detailing the dispute, clarifying the legal impact of the 2008 Sino-Japanese arrangement to cooperate in the East China Sea, and proposing increased Sino-Japanese cooperation.
• Ito, Masami, "Japan-China island tensions rise: The ins and outs of the spat over a Chinese fishing boat captain,", Japan Times, 22 September 2010.