As I see it | Isle be back

If the Chinese activists who landed on Diaoyu Islands last month sound a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger, that’s because they have stolen the Terminator’s famous one-liner. The half-dozen men who dodged the Japanese Coast Guard and planted Chinese and Taiwanese flags on one of the disputed islands vowed to be back, over and over again. Their fearless (some say reckless) act – the most successful landing by Chinese civilians in 16 years – have set off a new wave of territorial disputes between the world’s second and third largest economies.

The set of uninhabited isles, known in Japan as the Senkaku, have little known economic or strategic importance to either side. Claims that the seafloor contains rich mineral and oil deposits remain unconfirmed. The five rocks and three reefs add up to an area of 7 square kilometers, about the size of Causeway Bay. To put things in perspective, China signed a series of treaties with Russia between 1858 and 1883 and gave away over 1,600,000 square kilometers of land in the northeastern region, an area three times the size of France and five times the size of Japan. It is therefore clear from the get-go that the disputes are not about resources or real estate. They are about something far more deep-rooted and toxic. China and Japan have so many unsettled scores in their tortured history that even a few worthless rocks are enough to spark a cold war-style standoff and threaten the most important bilateral trading relationship in Asia.

Neither country is interested in war. But for fear of appearing soft at home, both governments refuse to talk and have stepped up their rhetoric instead. The Japanese have gone so far as to “nationalize” the disputed islands by purchasing them from their supposed private owners. That move, which Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda claimed would prevent the islands from falling into the hands of right-wing extremists, has plunged China-Japan relations to their lowest point since the two countries normalized diplomatic ties in the 1970s. Anti-Japan protests have broken out in over 80 cities across China. In Shenzhen, for instance, angry mobs besieged Japanese department stores and attacked Japanese-made vehicles. Even sushi restaurants owned by local Chinese were not spared. The Japanese responded in kind: less violent demonstrations against “Chinese imperialism” are being held in major cities.

Every territorial dispute is a he-says-she-says proposition. Everyone has an opinion but few bother with the facts. Following the Diaoyu conflict is a lot like watching China and Japan compete in the Olympic gymnastics: we suddenly become armchair athletes ready to dispense judgment based on a little bit of knowledge and plenty of emotion. Here in Hong Kong, we instinctively throw our support behind our Motherland. It is the patriotic thing to do. As we cheer on our seafaring activists and wonder whether to cancel our Tokyo vacations, it helps to take a step back and look at the controversy from different perspectives.

Japan’s Perspective

“If we let them have the Senkaku, they’ll come after Okinawa next.”
- Hissho Yanai, leader of the Association to Protect Our Children’s Future from Chinese Intimidation