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Japan itself alters status quo by buying islands
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Japan, rather than China, is the country that has unilaterally “altered the status quo” in the East China Sea region in a long-standing dispute with China over the Diaoyu Islands.
The Diaoyu Islands have been part of China’s sacred territory since ancient times — a claim supported by historical facts and jurisprudential evidence.
The Diaoyu Islands were first discovered, named and exploited by the Chinese people. The Chinese book “Voyage with a Tail Wind” recorded the names of the islands that Chinese voyagers passed en route from Fujian to Ryukyu, such as “Diaoyu Islet” and “Chikan Islet,” known today as the Diaoyu Island and Chiwei Islet.
In 1561, the “Illustrated Compendium on Maritime Security” compiled by Zheng Ruozeng under the auspices of Hu Zongxian, supreme commander of the southeast coastal defense of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) court, included the Diaoyu Islands on the “Map of Coastal Mountains and Sands” and incorporated them into the jurisdiction of the coastal defense of the Ming imperial court.
The “Recompiled General Annals of Fujian,” a book compiled by Chen Shouqi and others in 1871, included the Diaoyu Islands as a strategic location for coastal defense and placed the islands under the jurisdiction of Gamalan, Taiwan.
The territorial dispute around the Diaoyu Islands started with Japan’s illegal occupation of the islands in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
In 1895, when the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) government’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War was all but certain, Japan illegally occupied the Diaoyu Island and its nearby islands.
Unequal treaty
After that, Japan forced the Qing government to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki and cede to Japan “the island of Formosa (Taiwan), together with all islands appertaining or belonging to the said island of Formosa.”
On December 1, 1943, China, the United States and Britain issued the Cairo Declaration, which stated in explicit terms that “all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and Pescadores” shall be restored to the Chinese. In international law, the Diaoyu Island and its related islands have been returned to China since then. On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Proclamation was issued. It reaffirmed that “the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out.”
Therefore, after the end of World War II, China recovered its territory invaded and occupied by Japan. The United States administered the islands as part of the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands after 1945. In 1971, The United States transferred the administration of the Diaoyu Islands to Japan.
As China and Japan were normalizing relations and concluding the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship in the 1970s, the then leaders of the two countries, acting in the larger interest of the China-Japan relations, reached important understanding and consensus on “leaving the issue of Diaoyu Dao (Islands) to be resolved later.”
In 2012, Tokyo took a veritable “unilateral move” to “purchase” and “nationalize” the Diaoyu Islands, in an attempt to legalize its act of theft. It was this provocative act of Japan that “has altered the status quo” in the region, and is the origin of the current tensions in the East China Sea.
Such an act has severely infringed upon China’s sovereignty and runs counter to the understanding and consensus reached between the older generation of leaders of the two countries. It has also rejected and challenged the outcomes of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. However, the United States has turned a blind eye to this provocative act and, on the contrary, puts the blame on China.
On November 23, the Chinese government issued a statement on setting up the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, which covers the Diaoyu Islands. The rightful action, aimed at safeguarding China’s sovereignty and providing air security, drew abrupt criticism from Washington, which has said it does not take sides on the dispute.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a strongly worded statement on the same day, called China’s move a “destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region.” Hagel said the establishment of the air defense identification zone is a “unilateral action” that will increase the “risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.”
Contrary to Hagel’s irresponsible accusation, historical facts prove that Japan, rather than China, should be blamed for “altering the status quo” in the East China Sea region.
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