The Senkaku Islands are covered in jungle but no rivers – it’s uninhabitable.
Photos from theatlantic.com
This month Japan bought the islands, prompting large-scale protests in China. Japan has been in control since 1972 anyway. But there might be a lot of oil reserves.
The dispute was caused by the territorial claims of Japan and China. The islands are within the boundaries of both countries, because they are close to Chinese coast as well as the Japanese one. Japanese boats have been on patrol to prevent Chinese fishing boats from visiting.
It is strange that China makes a fuss of the islands. They never really seem to have cared about them; Japanese boats have been on patrol long before this dispute. What would China want to do with those islands? The oil that can be found there might be of some use, but it can’t be as important as China makes it seem. And the financial argument of China can’t possibly be better than the cultural argument of Japan. It became clear that a financial argument was possible in 1971, so why protest against the Japanese claim now? China hasn’t been able to use those oil (and gas) reserves for 40 years, it can’t be that important if you ignore those reserves for so long.
This doesn’t make Japan good though. They tell the world that China only wants those islands for the money, but isn’t it a strange coincidence that Japan is in control of the Senkaku Islands since 1972, one year after the oil discovery? And why do they want to be the official owner of the islands, when they have been in control for so long? An answer for that is the money they’ll get from the oil reserves.
Is the dispute only about oil? There is also an important military shipping lane and it offers fishing grounds. But does China need the fishing grounds or the oil? Probably not. They can’t need the strategic shipping lanes either, as if they would fear Japan more if it ‘officially’ owns these islands.
For China it is important to create an enemy. It is better for the harmony among people when they all have the same enemy; Japan. If China encourages protests, everyone in China will become mad at Japan. Normally if people protest in China, people are beaten and sent to jail. In the anti-Japan protests, no one is hurt. China is supporting the protests, if not organising them.
In front of a camera a Chinese civilian said: “They are stealing our land. War is the only solution”. If all civilians would be as easily manipulated as she is, war will be the only way to relieve their anger. What if Japan is not the chosen enemy but Europe or the United States? How easy would it be for China to start a war, to convince their people they’re right?
Is war the solution to this dispute?
Moment Matters 
China is most definitely imperialistic. Not only these islands. But others which are disputed by nations in sour east Asia. It’s difficult to see how history supports Chinese claims but China tightly controls the education and brainwashing of their own people and uses that to whip up fear. Who would dare fight such a powerful nation? Taiwan continues to be independent. It’s history shows it not at all traditionally Chinese territory yet mainland Chinese do not know this. They are taught the opposite.
The USA and Japan also engage in trying to claim disputed teratories but are less effective at revising the history taught to their citizens
OK, interesting point. I would just like to point out that we have at the moment ongoing wars as a direct consequence of USA school system effectively revising history taught to their citizens. Also that includes successful media daily brainwashing We leave in a world where in to strongest countries in the world at the moment which are USA and China( looking at their military,economic and political influence) the people are effectively lied to and all the aggression to the other countries is seen as normal and natural.
Both countries need change from the inside out and I wonder where it will happen first.
I am not surprised by this, it seems that every where we look today someone is fighting or rioting over something. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another large scale war erupt in a few years time. When you talk about oil, I have been thinking about that since last week when all the anti American rioting began in the Middle East. They could very easily shut off shipments of oil to the US which would shock most of us as we are more dependent on the oil than we were back in the 70s when we experienced the oil embargo.
I think a little over 40% of our oil and to gasoline conversion is now domestically produced.
They will both calm down their warmongering talk soon and we will forget about these islands. Another distraction from the real issues in those countries 😀
“it is important to create an enemy.” Almost all dictatorships resort to this policy as nationalism trumps resistance to oppression. If you oppose the regime you are considered a traitor.
The same scenario that has been happening in the Philippines right now.
There always a better solution than war – why not ask the people that live on the islands – where do you want to be long. It’s always about something – money or religion. Never about people and needs. To start a war means that the money machine going top speed again and it keeps people stop thinking about important matters in the home country. Always been like that. .
Yes ask the people who live on the islands. A fine idealistic thing to do. But Senkaku is uninhabited. Sure the Japanese could put some people there, support them, as puppets in their power struggle. China could do the same. It’s not like the dispute with Taiwan where you have many millions of people, some indigenous non-Chinese and some transplanted Chinese who came from the mainland a couple of generations ago and took over from the indigenous folks who were already there. Asking the people is a great idea, but only ever happens if the people happen to agree with you. Look at the Falkland islands for example.