Now China Wants Okinawa, Site Of U.s. Bases In Japan

[Old55]

Now China Wants Okinawa, Site of U.S. Bases in Japan

 

The most immediate U.S. concern, however, is that during their late-November jaunt the H-6Ks brushed by Okinawa, which sits on the north side of the Miyako Strait and is the biggest island in the Ryukyus.

Beijing’s argument, like all its territorial claims, is rooted in long-ago history—1372 to be exact. By that year, as Gen. Luo pointed out to the China News Service, the Ryukyu kingdom was paying tribute to the Chinese court, and Japan did not complete its annexation of the island chain until 1872.

In their landmark May 2013 People’s Daily commentary, Li Guoqiang and Zhang Haipeng of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences maintained the annexation of the Ryukyus constituted an invasion. Moreover, they wrote that Japan’s defeat in World War II nullified the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895, by which the Qing court formally renounced its claims to the islands.

“For now, let’s not discuss whether they belong to China—they were certainly China’s tributary state,” said Luo to the China News Service. “I am not saying all former tributary states belong to China, but we can say with certainty that the Ryukyus do not belong to Japan.”

The issues are not as clear cut as Luo, Li, and Zhang indicate, however. A Japanese feudal lord conquered the islands in 1609 but permitted the Ryukyuans to also pay tribute to the court in China. Another complication undermining China’s position involves the identity of the Qing dynasty. Although Beijing now considers that set of rulers to be Chinese, the Qings did not think of themselves that way, especially during the early part of their rule, and the Chinese at the time certainly viewed them as foreign invaders.

Why, then, did Beijing question Japan’s sovereignty over the Ryukyu chain? It looks like it wanted to gain an advantage in the Senkaku dispute, as a May 2013 Global Times editorial, titled “Ryukyu Issue Offers Leverage to China,” makes explicit.

Yet Beijing’s position is ultimately puzzling because, by raising the stakes with intimidation tactics, the Chinese have made themselves look incurably aggressive, thereby reducing Japan’s incentive to agree to any territorial concessions. Once Beijing disputed more than just the Senkakus—in other words, once Chinese leaders showed their real intention was to dismember Japan—China essentially foreclosed further discussion.

“Using the Ryukyu sovereignty issue to resolve the Diaoyu dispute would destroy the basis of China-Japan relations,” Zhou Yongsheng of China Foreign Affairs University told the Financial Times. “If this was considered, it would basically be the prelude to military action.”

A fight of that sort is something China cannot win. As Dennis Blair, former commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said to The Daily Beast, “An attempt to take the Ryukyus by China would mean war with the United States, as we are pledged to defend Japan, and the Chinese would not succeed in capturing them.”

To win without fighting, the Chinese are doing their best to undermine Japanese rule. As June Teufel Dreyer, a political science professor at the University of Miami, told The Daily Beast, Beijing has been “quietly stoking the issue from time to time,” funneling cash to Chinese student associations in Okinawa. “Some funds may also find their way into support of Okinawans who are anti-U.S. bases,” noted Dreyer, who teaches courses on China and international relations.

These tactics, although irritating, are counterproductive, just enough to get Japanese policymakers angry but not enough to change the political calculus in the Ryukyus. Although the Ryukyuans may be irritated at Tokyo from time to time, they have no intention of becoming Chinese pawns, especially in light of Beijing’s military moves off their shores.

The issue going forward is whether Beijing will renew its Ryukyu campaign now that it is increasing the pressure on the Senkakus. One option for China is to go beyond the open-ended position it took in 2013 and lay a formal claim to the Ryukyus.

That would constitute another strategic mistake. “If the debate now includes Chinese extension of sovereignty over the Ryukyus, then this is precisely the kind of overreach that will ultimately harm China,” argues Toshi Yoshihara of the Naval War College, in an e-mail message to The Daily Beast. “This line of reasoning parallels China’s claims to ‘historic rights’ over the South China Sea.”

As Yoshihara notes, “Such a worldview suggests that everything is potentially up for grabs.” Chinese officials stopped talking about the strategically important Ryukyus around the same time they began to decrease their intrusions around the nearby Senkakus. After 2013, Beijing shifted its attention southward, to the South China Sea.

Now, Beijing’s ambitions are expanding in all directions. While making advances in the South China Sea, it is renewing efforts to take the Senkakus. Its next target looks like the Ryukyus, putting the American bases on Okinawa in play.

And China is unlikely to stop there. “Our navy wants to push through the island chains and reach the eastern Pacific,” said Zhang Haipeng, one of co-authors of the People’s Daily commentary on the Ryukyus, at the 2013 Renmin University seminar. The eastern Pacific, let’s remember, washes onto American shores.

[Mike S]

I think the smog over there is warping their brain ..... maybe they should just lay claim to the whole world and be done with it ..... :mocking: :hystery: :hystery:

:cheersty:

[jpbago]

I think the smog over there is warping their brain ..... maybe they should just lay claim to the whole world and be done with it ..... :mocking: :hystery: :hystery:

:cheersty:

 

They are. Whenever the smog clears a bit, they see something else that they want.

[mogo51]

I think the smog over there is warping their brain ..... maybe they should just lay claim to the whole world and be done with it ..... :mocking: :hystery: :hystery:

:cheersty:

 

Give them a bit of time and it will happen.  Between the Chinese and Muslims, we might as all move to the North Pole and be done with it!

[Kuya John]

Oh so that's why......It was mentioned on Yahoo about China is in the process of building a second Aircraft Carrier

(apparently they have a ex Russian one in service at present)

With the rapid advance of climate change one wonders just how many of these islands they are laying claim to, will still be above water in 10-20 years time. Maybe then they will lay claims to Switzerland and Austria,  Sorry I digress.

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

Between the Chinese and Muslims, we might as all move to the North Pole and be done with it!

 

Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but the Russians claim that one.  Seriously.

[Methersgate]

I think, on the basis of the years that I spent in Beijing, and with the important caveat that I left China in 2001, that all this aggression by China is quite real; there is a very large body of Chinese public opinion which sees it as essential that China should resume its rightful place as Top Nation, and should do so as quickly as possible.

The Party used to try hard to dampen this down, in the Deng era, but under Xi the Party no longer attempts to do so, and to some extent the Party even plays up to it.

Whether this is because Party control is weakening or whether it because Xi believes this stuff or whether it is because Xi is trying to co-opt Chinese xenophobia to help his own popularity does not really matter - what matters is that China is now the greatest threat to world peace.

[not so old china hand]

I think, on the basis of the years that I spent in Beijing, and with the important caveat that I left China in 2001, that all this aggression by China is quite real; there is a very large body of Chinese public opinion which sees it as essential that China should resume its rightful place as Top Nation, and should do so as quickly as possible.

The Party used to try hard to dampen this down, in the Deng era, but under Xi the Party no longer attempts to do so, and to some extent the Party even plays up to it.

Whether this is because Party control is weakening or whether it because Xi believes this stuff or whether it is because Xi is trying to co-opt Chinese xenophobia to help his own popularity does not really matter - what matters is that China is now the greatest threat to world peace.

[not so old china hand]

Only a cynic would assume that recent actions are to remove opposition from cliques in the armed forces that support previous leaders and oppose the actions of the current leadership. Nor should it be supposed that such actions are purely for personal aggrandisement.

[WordsandMusic]

if you play enough angles and throw enough chit, something is bound to turn out right and stick. these folks think deeply, they are trying to manipulate every scenario until they get even a little advantage. Then they take that little advantage and try all those angles. They continue to build on information they have stollen, most of which the free world is not even aware of. if they ever succeed in getting a world currency, it will melt the very core of the banking system. If they trash the banking system, they know they have enough gold to ride out the rebuild of world currency, putting them in the drivers seat. All the little things they do are to produce a bigger return on the small manipulations years down the line. We are losing the strategy war and will have to face our incompetence someday. You might think they have to many irons in the fire, but all they do is related to end game. They don't only take the direct route to a problem, they look at all the what ifs and play those angles as well. Look no further than what they have achieved in the last 40 years. the Chinese are patient. Chess at its very best!