New Sino-Japanese strain over disputed
islands By J Sean Curtin
The dramatic arrest of seven
Chinese activists on a disputed Japanese-held island
claimed by China has severely strained Sino-Japanese
relations. The incident this week marks the first time
Japanese police have detained
Chinese nationals for such an offense - intruding on
disputed territory - and it sparked protests in Beijing
fueling anger in Tokyo.
In Japan, anti-Chinese
sentiment is running high as the country's media focus
on the gruesome murder trial of three Chinese students
who killed a Japanese family of four - for about US$350
from a bank machine. Opportunistic Japanese politicians
are exploiting this mood with strident nationalist
rhetoric, further inflaming anti-Japanese passions in
China. Unless Beijing and Tokyo make a strong and
coordinated effort, the current dispute could easily
spin out of control, threatening the two neighbors'
booming economic ties.
In recent months,
Sino-Japanese political tensions have for the first time
begun to cast a shadow over the thriving economic links
between the two countries. In February, Chinese
officials suggested that Tokyo could lose a
high-speed-train contract because of controversial
visits to the war-tainted Yusukuni Shrine by Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (see China may block Japan deals over
shrine, February 27). His visits to the shrine, a
World War II memorial, have already inflicted major
damage on high-level political ties, and have drawn
fierce criticism from China, which suffered under
Japanese occupation and wartime atrocities on a
horrendous scale. Some Chinese have even threatened to
throw themselves under the wheels of Japanese-made
bullet trains if Tokyo gets the contract.
This
stormy backdrop is amplifying the current high-seas
drama. On Wednesday evening, seven Chinese activists
were detained by Japanese police for landing on a small
disputed islet, Uotsuri-shima, which is claimed by
Japan, China and Taiwan. The flag-waving members of the
ultra-patriotic China Federation for Defending the
Diaoyu Islands (called the Senkaku Islands in Japan)
spent about 10 hours on the barren rock before Japanese
police in helicopters finally caught them. During their
time on the islet, they raised the Chinese flag, gave
mobile-phone interviews to the Chinese media, and
desperately tried to avoid capture.
Chinese
activists plant flag on disputed islands Japanese
television broadcast pictures of the fugitives
frantically scurrying around the rocky terrain as police
helicopters tracked them down. On Hong Kong TV, the
activists made patriotic declarations about the islands
being Chinese territory. "We will resist Japanese
attempts to remove us from the island. This is Chinese
territory," one unidentified activist said in a
mobile-phone interview.
Japanese police said the
seven detainees would be questioned before being handed
over to prosecutors. They will probably be deported for
violating the Immigration Control and Refugee
Recognition Law. According to the police, one of the
detainees had previously been arrested in Japan for
vandalizing the Yasukuni Shrine in a protest after
Koizumi's first controversial visit in August 2001 - he
has made three more since that time.
The remote
and distinctly unscenic outcropping on which the
maritime drama unfolded is one of several uninhabited
islets in the East China Sea, lying between Japan's
southern island-prefecture of Okinawa and Taiwan. Japan
calls the territory the Senkaku Islands, in China the
islands are known as the Diaoyu, Taiwanese refer to them
as the Tiaoyutai, and in English they are sometimes
called the Pinnacle Islands.
Visually, the
grouping is nothing more than a desolate collection of
rocks, but the area around the islands is rich in fish,
oil reserves and other valuable natural resources. This
makes ownership a desirable financial asset.
Now Japanese rightists plan a
landing The activists' landing on Uotsuri marks
their fourth attempt in the past nine months. Previous
attempts all failed, although they almost succeeded in
mid-January. In response to the landing, a Japanese
ultra-nationalist organization, Nihon Seinensha, has
announced that it intends to visit the islands in the
next few days. This group built a small lighthouse on
Uotsuri in 1978 and also erected a shrine there in 2000.
Both incidents inflamed Chinese public opinion. The
China Federation for Defending the Diaoyu Islands has
also said its members will soon make another voyage to
the island. The Japanese Coast Guard has warned both
groups that it will attempt to stop them. The
controversy appears likely to continue.
Immediately after the activists' detention,
Prime Minister Koizumi attempted to reduce tension over
the incident. In a calm tone and using measured words,
he said: "It is unusual, but natural for Japan, which is
a country governed by law and which handles people
according to the law." In a conciliatory tone, he added,
"It is necessary for both parties to handle the case in
as calm a manner as possible."
Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yasuo Fukuda was less tactful, however, simply
stating, "In terms of both history and international
law, there can be no doubt that the Senkaku Islands are
Japanese territory. We regret that foreigners illegally
landed on one of them."
Beijing took an equally
firm line, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan
saying, "The Diaoyu Islands have been China's territory
from time immemorial." Commenting on the arrest of the
Chinese activists, he said, "We think this is an illegal
action that breaks international law, and moreover it is
a serious provocation against China's sovereignty and
territory and Chinese citizens' human rights." On
Wednesday and Thursday Chinese protesters gathered
outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, where they
burned Japanese flags and held up Chinese banners that
read: "The Diaoyu Islands are China's territory."
On Thursday, prominent members of Koizumi's own
party as well as the right-wing press engaged in
nationalistic rhetoric. In an editorial, the
conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper wrote, "The eight
Senkaku Islands inherently belong to Japan. This is
obvious from a historical point of view and an
examination of international law." It concluded, "The
blame must fall on China if unlawful acts by some
activists from that country serve to worsen the
bilateral relationship."
Brutal murders fuel
anti-Chinese sentiment The timing of the islet
landing was particularly unpropitious for Japan-China
ties as it coincided with a high-profile murder trial
that has horrified Japan and given rise to anti-Chinese
sentiment. On the day before the Senkaku incident, a
24-year-old former Chinese student, Wei Wei, pleaded
guilty to brutally murdering a family of four in Fukuoka
last June and dumping their bodies in the local
bay.
In the first trial hearing, the Fukuoka
district court heard a gruesome account of how Wei and
two other former Chinese students, Wan Lian and Yang
Ning, both in their early 20s, ruthlessly killed two
children and their parents for just 37,000 yen ($348).
Most disturbing, the men carefully planned their crime
in advance, deciding to "kill the entire family, dump
their bodies and withdraw money from a cash machine",
the court was told.
Late one evening last June,
Wei, Wang and Yang broke into the house of Shinjiro
Matsumoto, whom they believed to be wealthy because he
owned a Mercedes-Benz. They drowned his wife, Chika, in
the bathtub and then smothered and strangled his
11-year-old son Kai. "I pushed the wife into the bath
and pressed a pillow against the child," Wei told the
distraught Fukuoka courtroom through an interpreter.
The gang next bound and gagged Matsumoto's
eight-year-old daughter Hina to use as a hostage upon
her father's return home. When Matsumoto discovered his
daughter with a knife at her throat, he begged the men
to spare her life. The trio demanded the access codes of
cash-machine cards. Once the killers had the
information, both father and daughter were strangled.
The gang dumped the bodies in Hakata Bay, weighting them
down with barbells. When they withdrew money from the
victim's bank account, they found only a small sum. They
had brutally murdered an entire family for just 37,000
yen.
The callous nature of the murders has
shocked ordinary Japanese, creating suspicion about
Chinese residents. It has also given a certain degree of
respectability to the rhetoric of ultra-nationalists who
stereotype Japan's Chinese community as being largely
comprising criminal elements. Tokyo Governor Shintaro
Ishihara is the best-known demagogue when it comes to
whipping up anti-foreigner sentiment.
Sino-Japanese relations unlikely to improve
in short term The Senkaku landing and the murders
- two unrelated events - have the potential to inflict
substantial damage on already strained Sino-Japanese
relations. Chinese public opinion is still seething
about Koizumi's New Year's Day visit to the
controversial Yasukuni Shrine - memorializing World War
II dead, including war criminals. The disputed-islands
issue adds a new dimension to the problem. The horrific
Fukuoka murders have made ordinary Japanese apprehensive
about China and more susceptible to the extremist views
of ultra-nationalist politicians and the right-wing
press.
Additionally, as long as Koizumi
maintains his current position - that foreigners have no
right to object to memorializing the war dead at the
shrine - it seems unlikely that bilateral relations will
improve during his tenure in office.
Given the
strength of reaction to the islet landing in both
countries, it will be some time before the troubled
territorial sentiments are calmed, and this increases
the risk that bilateral economic ties may suffer as a
result. The dispute also opens up a new source of
Sino-Japanese tension, complicating an already difficult
situation. This creates a volatile situation in both
countries, one that Beijing and Tokyo may find difficult
to control.
J Sean Curtin is aGLOCOMfellow at the Tokyo-based Japanese Institute of
Global Communications.
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Japanese police have detained
Chinese nationals for such an offense - intruding on
disputed territory - and it sparked protests in Beijing
fueling anger in Tokyo. 
