Monitor | There's only one way to solve the Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute
This isn't about national feelings of injustice, it's about the oil and gas deposits that it is believed may lie beneath these once-obscure islets
Just when we all hoped the dispute over the Diaoyu/ Senkaku islets in the East China Sea had simmered down, the Japanese defence ministry had to go and stir things up again.
In its latest annual policy paper, published yesterday, the ministry insisted the uninhabited rocks "are an inherent territory of Japan", and dismissed China's own claim as "incompatible with the existing order of international law".
Tokyo accused Beijing of having "attempted to change the status quo by force". It complained that Chinese military ships and aircraft have repeatedly violated Japanese waters and airspace, and condemned Beijing for "dangerous acts that could give rise to a contingency situation".
Now, I know I am sailing into turbulent seas here. The last time I wrote a piece about this dispute, one reader wrote in to tell me I didn't have the faintest clue about how fiercely the injustice of Japan's claim over the islands burned in the heart of every Chinese.
He called for "the strongest actions that the Chinese government can take against the Japanese" and threatened extreme violence against certain sensitive parts of my anatomy for calling the whole spat "silly".