Opinion | Tangled past of the Diaoyus/Senkakus
Philip Bowring traces the competing historical claims on the Ryukyu islands - now part of Japan and to which the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands once belonged - that may again be significant
The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, just like the Dokdo/Takeshima ones disputed between Japan and Korea, are just barren rocks of no obvious value. But they are just the visible part of icebergs of history. That few on any side know much about the history does not seem to matter as long as the issues can be dragged into the headlines when elections are at hand or diversions from leadership scandals required.
At least the Korea/Japan spat has scant broader international implications - other than embarrassing their mutual ally, the US.
The latest Diaoyu/Senkaku furore was created by Hong Kong activists enjoying tacit Beijing backing and cheered by a Hong Kong media keen to show it does not need the "national education" the government wants to thrust on the younger generation. More worryingly, Diaoyu/Senkaku may be the tip of an iceberg extending almost to Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island.
In its simplest terms, China's claims to these rocks rest on the argument that they are on the continental shelf of China and separated from Japanese territory, which runs parallel to the Ryukyu Islands almost all the way to Kyushu. Japan rejects that on the grounds that the shelf does not stop at the trough but extends southeast until the steep drop-off to the deep Pacific waters southeast of the Ryukyu island chain.
China's shelf-based claim is strong but accepting it adds relatively little to its seabed rights, given that the rocks cannot support human habitation.
The hidden iceberg of history is not potential seabed resources but a much bigger issue: the Ryukyu chain, which is now part of Japan and runs for 1,000 kilometres and is centred on Okinawa, the site of a huge US military base. The nearest permanently inhabited island to Diaoyu/Senkaku is Ishigaki, home to 45,000 people in the southern Ryukyus, or what the Japanese call the Nansei Shoto or southwest islands. It is slightly closer than the northeastern tip of Taiwan.
That Diaoyu/Senkaku might be part of the Ryukyus rather than on China's continental shelf would not matter much unless Japan's rights to the Ryukyus were also challenged.