Beijing stokes opposition to US bases in Japan’s Okinawa as it seeks to ‘win hearts and minds’ amid Taiwan tensions

Beijing has been ramping up its propaganda calling into question other countries’ claims to lands with ‘historical connections’ to China, analysts say

Xi Jinping’s recent Ryukyu remarks could ‘exacerbate relations’ between Okinawa and Tokyo, and disrupt US-Japan defence plans involving the prefecture

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Activists protest outside a US military base in Nago, Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, last year. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:30am, 2 Jul 2023Updated: 9:46am, 2 Jul 2023

China’s recent remarks about the country’s close ties with a chain of southern Japanese islands are yet another attempt by Beijing to “molest public opinion”, analysts say, while it also stokes opposition to US military bases in the region to add to pressure on Japan in the event of conflict breaking out in the Taiwan Strait.

In early June, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a visit to the country’s national archives that he had learned about the “deep” relationship between the Ryukyu Islands, which includes Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, and the southern Chinese province of Fujian in his time as governor there.

An independent kingdom with a distinctive culture and languages prior to its annexation by Japan in 1879, Ryukyu was ruled as a monarchy that paid tribute to China during the Ming dynasty.

Xi’s Ryukyu remarks, his first on the subject since taking office, were widely interpreted as an attempt at pressuring Tokyo into keeping its nose out of issues related to Taiwan, which Beijing regards as an internal matter.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the China National Archives of Publications and Culture in Beijing last month. Photo: Xinhua

Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo, said Xi’s comments showed China was again trying to “molest public opinion” in Okinawa.

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