Asia-Pacific on the brink of WAR?!
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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered Japan's Self Defense Forces (JSDF) to be fully prepared for any emergency under the complex peripheral security environment at the Ministry of Defense Tuesday morning.
Noda reviewed the guards of honor of JSDF inside the Ministry of Defense, and then attended a senior commander meeting of JSDF, accompanied by the Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto.
Noda made a speech to about 180 senior commanders of JSDF at the meeting.
In the speech, Noda said the uncertainties over Japan's peripheral security environment rose to the highest level as the military activity of surrounding countries, including Democratic People's Republic of Korea, China and Russia, became more active, thus JSDF should monitor and analyze the countries closely.
He particularly mentioned that China has been increasingly active in surrounding seas.
The Japanese government has exchanged the official contract on the purchase of Diaoyu Islands with Kurihara family whom the Japanese side called "the private owner" Tuesday morning, despite strong protest from China.
The Japanese government will pay the expense of 2.05 billion yen (26.15 million U.S. dollars) with government reserve funds to the Kurihara family, who claims to own the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
Demonstrating China's undisputable sovereignty over the islands, two ships of the China Marine Surveillance (CMS) reached the waters around the islets Tuesday morning.
The CMS has drafted an action plan for safeguarding territorial sovereignty and would take actions pending the development of the situation.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura announced Monday afternoon that the Japanese government hopes the purchase would not undermine the overall bilateral relations with China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted quickly on Monday, saying Japan's purchase of the islands is illegal and invalid and China firmly opposes the move.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on the sidelines of the APEC summit on Sunday, made clear China's position on relations with Japan and on the Diaoyu Islands issue.
Hu pointed out that China-Japan relations had recently faced a severe situation due to the Diaoyu Islands issue.
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Someone should just nuke the islands and blow it off the face of Earth.
In the end, no matter how they call it "symbol of this", "symbol of that", "historical baggage".......I still think its a damn silly thing.
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This time Japan cannot whack China.
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No war, saber rattling only to distract from domestic woes...typical...when...
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the war likely to happen anytime soon would come from Middle East than Asia Pacific countries.
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Now China only sends small class of warship. It is a stand-off to see who will start the engagement which will light the fire. Both sides submarines should be crusing near-by collecting as much activities of each other's forces present. The think-tank high ranking staff should creating various senarios and studying how to react to the situations. Having a good submarine forces should give the full advantage of stealth. The moment you see bigger classes of surface warship being sent to that area, it will be an all-out test of each other's weapons. PRC weapons technology versus Japanese USA weapons technology.
Which forces do you think will suffer high casualties?
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island is owned by chinese back in imperial times 1530s and is nearer to china than to japan.its ownership was only taken by a japanese family in 1800s
since the china people were whacked until blur during ww2 by nippon kaigun and the islands are nearer to china and has been simply confiscated by japanese business man during the time of boxer wars.it will indeed be an all out war to make ado from the defeats of the past on china side.
could this be the end of the world as predicted in 2012???they said something bout mongol or chinese race going to war???
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humans wouldn't die so easliy one lah.
we have surived ice age, 2 world wars, several pandemics like black death.
Even if nuclear weapons is used, there will still be some places untouched.
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perhaps china oridi polishing her arsenal n waiting
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Tennoheika banzai!
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
humans wouldn't die so easliy one lah.
we have surived ice age, 2 world wars, several pandemics like black death.
Even if nuclear weapons is used, there will still be some places untouched.
yah ,i know we survived all that but not sure if can survive another recession due to war.food will get more expensive and almost all things from japan and china will not be made and exported.$$$ will devalue ,usa go into chaos as china is like buying us dollars and has stake in usa.so if war come to china and japan...no more gundam,no more china made led tv..no more handphones,,,everything from ipad ,playstation to 100% things u find in your room will suddenly cease to be produced and sold.
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In the South China Sea, PRC China is gaining more enemies to fend off in a sea conflict. Japan vs China vs Taiwan; Spratley Island PRC China faces Philippines, Brunei,Vietnam maybe Malaysia.
PRC can't fight two conflicts at the same time. Most likely, they will tackle one area at a time. If PRC demands to control South China Sea, her naval forces will have to face more navies from the countries near those area.
But the botton line is, if there is war at that area, too much of the economy that take took time to bulilt will be the greatest stake. Before PRC launches a SSM, she had to calculate the lost to her economy.
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everyone should just sit down and drink more liang teh
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a war wouldn't happen so easily lor.
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Originally posted by Simplemindsg:
In the South China Sea, PRC China is gaining more enemies to fend off in a sea conflict. Japan vs China vs Taiwan; Spratley Island PRC China faces Philippines, Brunei,Vietnam maybe Malaysia.
PRC can't fight two conflicts at the same time. Most likely, they will tackle one area at a time. If PRC demands to control South China Sea, her naval forces will have to face more navies from the countries near those area.
But the botton line is, if there is war at that area, too much of the economy that take took time to bulilt will be the greatest stake. Before PRC launches a SSM, she had to calculate the lost to her economy.
If China could win a war at sea, it would be happy to start one. China will not be able to export anything, but Japan will be completely gone. China can survive on its domestic economy. Japan would change its tune forever, same for Korea.
But China at this point cannot win a war at sea or even make it drag out.
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think a war could happen.think oil was said to exist there in diaoyu islands and besides island is part of china from imperial times which meant they were first ones to set foot on uninhabited island and it is nearer to china than japan.After a 1968 study by experts discovered that oil reserves might be found under
the sea near the Senkaku/diaoyu Islands, Japan's ownership of the islands has been ...see wikinotes on imperial items with a carbon dating could be used to date how old the material was.so if first chinese man set foot there long ago it meant island is china territory as in international laws current.the japs only came in during 1890 or so.
so its like a neighbour who comes and put his flower pots into your house door area or on your head when its really part of your space all along!
a war due to this will 100% happen.
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and look....a bad omen of an impending war with a huge storm in okinawa area near diaoyu islands now.last time this omen happened was mongol invasion of japan and ww2 with ships from usa heading to japan.
Typhoon Cobra, also known as the Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey), was the United States Navy designation for a tropical cyclone which struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944 during World War II.
Because of 100 mph (87 kn; 160 km/h) winds, very high seas and torrential rain, three destroyers capsized and sank, and a total of 790 lives were lost. Nine other warships were damaged, and over 100 aircraft were wrecked or washed overboard; the aircraft carrier Monterey was forced to battle a serious fire that was caused by a plane hitting a bulkhead
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The two Mongol fleets were dispatched by Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan who had conquered China and had become the first emperor of its Yuan (Mongol) dynasty. The first invasion force that attacked Japan in the autumn of 1274 comprised about 30,000 to 40,000 men (mostly ethnic Chinese and Koreans, except for the Mongolian officers) and an estimated 500 to 900 vessels. The typhoon struck as the ships lay at anchor in Hakata Bay, Kyushu, Japan, sinking about one-third of them, with the rest limping home; it is estimated that 13,000 of Kublai’s men drowned.
The second Mongol fleet was much larger, made up of two separate forces—one setting out from Masan (Korea) and the other sailing from southern China—with a combined force of 4,400 vessels and some 140,000 soldiers and sailors. The two fleets joined up near Hakata Bay, again the main point of attack, on Aug. 12, 1281. On August 15, as they were about to assault the much smaller Japanese forces defending the island (about 40,000 samurai and other fighting men), a massive typhoon hit, wrecking the Mongol fleet and once again foiling the invasion attempt. The invading forces suffered tremendous casualties, with at least half the Mongol warriors drowning and all but a few hundred ships from the fleet perishing during the storm. Most of the men who survived the storm were hunted down and killed by the samurai over the following days. Only a small fraction of Kublai Khan’s original force returned home from this ill-fated expedition, one of the largest and most disastrous attempts at a naval invasion in history.
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the chinese fleet i saw had many modern and clean looking frigates each able to fire missiles from it.its a world class fleet.the japs also has a world class fleet.
what would happen to spore if war happens there?firstly world will go into a recession including usa and europe.as jap n china battle one another,the $$$$ thats used to help usa and europe economy will be suspended creating a weaker economy as deva;luation in currencies occur due to lack of funding from chinese banks .when that happens the us dollar will drop and the rest of the world tied to us economy.fuel would be more expensive just to ship a ton of bricks even.nothing will be built and all countries importing goods will find it expensive,why would fuel be more expensive since its crude is from arabia?fuel is all quoted in us dollar and even if its quoted in british or euro dollar they are all affected and thus price is raised as that will be used to justify the future losses if the currencies rise up to value which opec will not budge.
so with more expensive fuel means more overly expensive food,tv,clothes etc.even a taxi ride to work will be impossible and the train services grind to a halt as they cant pay the bills due to currencies devaluation.with that most factories will close shop as they cant afford the bills to run a 3 ton machine or even turn on the aircon or industrial systems even.means everything made will sudeddenly be way more expensive than used to be.
all things which used to be $2 for a nasi lemak could rise to $5 even though the war with china and japan is far away.they are however the 2 countries which are poweful and powerful figures in world economics.
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
a war wouldn't happen so easily lor.
its like working.when u are working ,then suddenly u got a call saying your house was burgled.do u still contnue working or go back ?of course u would go back to tend to house even though the boss offered to increase your salary at work by 2 times! -
By then Taiwan is the nearest to Diaoyu island but du to limited recognition...cmi.
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The standoff between China and Japan over a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea continues to escalate, raising fears that the world’s second and third largest economies could stumble into armed conflict. On Friday, six Chinese patrol boats approached the Japanese-controlled islands, which are called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. That was four more China Maritime Surveillance vessels than China had previously acknowledged dispatching to the islands northeast of Taiwan. “It is deplorable that the invasion of the territorial waters happened at this time and we strongly request that the Chinese authorities leave our territory,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters Friday morning.
On Friday China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the patrol as a “rights defense law enforcement action, to reflect the Chinese government’s jurisdiction over the Diaoyu Islands and safeguard China’s maritime rights and interests.” China was infuriated by the Japanese government’s purchase last week of three of the five islands for $26 million from a Japanese family that has claimed ownership to them for decades. China called the move illegal and a violation of Chinese sovereignty. Taiwan, which also claims the Diaoyu, accused Japan of infringing on its territory.
On Friday afternoon Japan’s Kyodo News Service reported that all six of the Chinese ships had left the waters surrounding the islands, bringing a temporary easing of the dispute. But concerns remain over the potential for a clash or even an accidental collision that could see risk of fighting between the two sides. “How serious is this? It’s bloody serious,” says Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “The Chinese are incensed by this, and it comes a particularly sensitive time.”
China’s ruling Communist Party has been preparing for this fall’s Communist Party congress, which is expected to see President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao begin handing over power. The man expected to take over Hu’s position, Vice President Xi Jinping, hasn’t been seen in public for nearly two weeks, fanning speculation about his health and political future. Confrontation with Japan doesn’t help the harmonious image the party wants to portray during the transition, but it has no incentive to compromise on an issue of sovereignty either. “In the run-up to the party congress certainly the government can’t be seen as being weak,” says Storey. “The response would be a nationalist backlash.” At the same time, the conflict with Japan has helped draw domestic attention from questions about China’s leadership, and a robust response helps boost the Communist Party’s legitimacy. “Since the 1990s … nationalism has replaced Communism as the justification for the one-party state, which requires stirring up anti-Western – above all, anti-Japanese – sentiment,” Ian Buruma, an author and professor at Bard College, wrote in Friday’s South China Morning Post. “This is never difficult in China, given the painful past, and it usefully deflects public attention from the failings and frustrations of living in a dictatorship.”
Anti-Japanese protests have erupted in several Chinese cities in recent weeks. On Aug. 27 a man ripped the Japanese flag from a car carrying the Japanese ambassador while it was stopped behind two vehicles in Beijing. While the rallies have remained small and closely monitored by police, there is a history of such demonstrations turning violent, as when hundreds of rioters threw rocks and smashed windows at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing in 2005. On Friday Japan repeated a warning to its citizens in China to pay attention to their personal safety, and listed six cases of Japanese being harassed or assaulted because of their nationality, including one person who had noodles dumped on them.
Unlike Chinese disputes with some of its Southeast Asian neighbors over South China Sea claims, the Diaoyu conflict carries the added weight of Imperial Japan’s brutal wartime occupation of China. The Diaoyu Islands fell under Japanese control after the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, when Japan took over Taiwan and its surrounding islands. After World War II the U.S. administered the Diaoyu, returning them to Japanese administration in the 1970s. China argues the islands have long been recognized as its territory. Japan says the Diaoyu were no man’s land before 1895 and should be considered part of Okinawa. As with most disputes over islands in the western Pacific, the potential for undersea oil and gas reserves raises the stakes for all claimants. While the U.S. says it doesn’t take a position on the island’s sovereignty, it says that as they are administered by Japan they fall under the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty, meaning the U.S. could be obligated to aid Japan in the event of an attack on them.
The last time tensions reached this level was in 2010, when Japan’s coast guard detained a Chinese fishing boat captain who rammed their vessels near the Diaoyu. But recent events have raised the animosity even higher. This spring Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said that he wanted to purchase four of the islands from the Kurihara family. The family bought the islands in the 1970s from the descendants of a Japanese businessman who ran a fish processing plant there in the early 1900s. Japan’s central government, feeling that it would be less provocative to have the islands in its possession than under the control of the aggressively nationalist Ishihara, bought them instead. But the distinction has made little difference to China. In mid-August a group 14 Chinese activists sailed from Hong Kong and landed on the Diaoyu, where they were detained by Japanese authorities and returned. Days later a group of Japanese nationalists made their own trip to the Diaoyu, which set off protests in several Chinese cities.
After Japan confirmed it had purchased the islands, China reported a series of Diaoyu baselines—land points from which maritime claims are delineated—to the U.N. That puts China in the position of having to defend those claims. “The baseline announcement implies that China needs to follow it up with actions,” says Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, the North East Asia director for the International Crisis Group, an ngo that seeks to prevent armed conflict. “The presence of Chinese law enforcement vessels in the area will increase the chances that the Japanese coast guard feels it needs to respond. If there is an incident it will be extremely difficult to walk back given the current state of diplomatic relations, the delicate Chinese transition and the high-pitched nationalist sentiment in China.” That sentiment will only increase in the coming days. September 18 is the 81st anniversary of the Mukden Incident, which saw the launch of a broad Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It 2010 the anniversary, coming shortly after the detention of the Chinese fishing boat captain, triggered broad protest in China, and it likely will again this year.
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BEIJING?A Chinese official suggested the country was willing to risk a "minor conflict" over its territorial dispute with Japan, saying it was prepared to chase off Japan Coast Guard vessels from waters around the Senkaku Islands.
The statement follows an announcement by China's foreign ministry Sept. 14 that it has submitted a sea chart to the United Nations showing the waters as its territorial sea.
Yu Zhirong, a senior official of the State Oceanic Administration who was formerly with the People’s Liberation Army Navy, told The Asahi Shimbun: "We will have to chase off Japan Coast Guard vessels from Chinese territorial waters. We are not fearful of risking a minor conflict."
The Chinese government had announced Sept. 10 its intention to turn the waters around the Senkakus, which it calls Diaoyu, into its territorial sea. The foreign ministry said the chart's submission has completed all legal procedures required under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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Originally posted by SBS9252G:
By then Taiwan is the nearest to Diaoyu island but du to limited recognition...cmi.
is not nearest but recognised state of mainland china,so taiwan has no case.as the people is from mainland china who first stepped on diaoyu islands back in ancient chinese imperial days. -
Historical development
- 1532: On the 8th of the 5th month (lunar calendar), Chen Kan, leading the envoy on behalf of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China to Ryukyu, recorded the islands as landmarks en route.[70]
- 1561: Ming envoy Kuo Ju-lin, following Chen Kan, set sail from Fuzhou on the 29th of the 5th month and recorded passing the islands as landmarks.[70]
- 1785: A Japanese map by Hayashi Shihei indicated the islands in the same color of that of China, and different from that of Ryukyu.[10]
- 1909: Japanese population of the islands became 248.[53][71]
- December 1971: The People's Republic of China (PRC) first officially claimed (via People's Daily) sovereignty when Japan made known its official standpoint with the signing of the Okinawa Reversion Treaty.[23]
- 23 April 2004: a member of a Japanese right-wing group rammed a bus into the Chinese consulate in Osaka, to protest Chinese claims.[34]
- July 2004: Japan started exploring for natural gas in what it considers its own exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea as a step to counter China's building of a natural gas complex nearby. Japan plans to survey a 30-kilometer-wide band stretching between latitudes 28 and 30 degrees North, just inside the border demarcated by Japan. China disputes Japan's rights to explore the area east of the median line between the two countries, which Japan has proposed as the demarcation line for their exclusive economic zones.[34]
- July 2004: a group of Chinese held a demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing afternoon to protest Japan's "illegal" oil exploration activities in a disputed area of the East China Sea. The protesters, organized by Beijing-based organization called the Patriots Alliance Network.[34]
- 17 March 2006: Kyodo News reported the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, presented that he considered "the Islands as territory of Japan" in his talk in Tokyo.[72]
- 27 October 2006: A group of activists from the Hong Kong-based Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands approached the islands to show the support for Chinese claims to the Diaoyu Islands. They were stopped from landing on the islands by the Japan Coast Guard.[73] Later on, the PLAN conducted a military exercise in the area.[74]
2008
- June:
- On 10 June 2008, the 270 ton sport fishing vessel Lien Ho (��號) of Taiwan suffered a collision with the Japanese patrol vessel Koshiki. The vessel sank while in the disputed territorial waters that have been claimed by Japan and Taiwan (ROC).[75] The Taiwanese crew who were aboard the vessel claims that the larger Japanese frigate deliberately crashed into them; Japanese coast guard initially claimed that the Taiwanese boat had crashed into the patrol ship.[76] While releasing the passengers, Japan initially detained the captain and sought reparations.[77][78]
- On 13 June, the captain was released.[79]
- On 16 June, a boat carrying activists from Taiwan, defended by five Republic of China Coast Guard vessels, approached to within 0.4 nautical miles (740 m) of the main island, from which position they circumnavigated the island in an assertion of sovereignty of the islands. This demonstration has prompted Taiwanese politicians to cancel a planned trip on-board Republic of China Navy vessels to demonstrate sovereignty.[80] The Taiwanese vessels were followed by Japanese Coast Guard vessels, but no attempt was made to intercept them.
- On 20 June, upon releasing the video taken by people on board the Taiwanese boat, Japan had apologized for the incident[81] and agreed to pay NT$10 million (US$311,000) as compensation to the owner of the boat.[82] Liu Chao-shiuan, Premier of the Republic of China, has refused to rule out the use of force to defend the islands against Japanese advances.[83] The ROC government recalled its chief representative to Japan in protest.[84] On June 20, the de-facto Japanese ambassador to Taiwan apologized, in person, to the captain of the Taiwanese boat Lien Ho.[85]
2010
- September:
- On 7 September 2010, a Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats in disputed waters near the islands. The collisions occurred after the Japanese Coast Guard ordered the trawler to leave the area. After the collisions, Japanese sailors boarded the Chinese vessel and arrested the captain Zhan Qixiong.[86]
- On 18 September, the 79th anniversary of the Mukden Incident, widespread anti-Japanese protests were held in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shenyang.[87]
- On 22 September, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao threatened further action if the captain of the Chinese fishing trawler were not released.[88]
- On 24 September, Japan released the Chinese captain, stating keeping the captain in custody would not be appropriate and raised considerable impact on the Sino-Japan relation.[89]
- On 25 September, China demanded an apology and compensation from Japan for holding the Chinese boat captain in the collision incident. Japan rejected the Chinese demand.[30]
- On 27 September, Japan said that they would counter-claim against China for damage to their patrol boats in the collision.[90]
- October:
- On 2 October, large scale anti-Chinese protests occurred in Tokyo and six other cities in Japan.[91][92]
- On 3 October, a group of right wing Japanese protesters marched to the Ikebukuro mall specializing in Chinese food demanding to guard the islands against the Chinese.[93]
- On 6 October, a joint USA/Japan drill is planned on defending the Okinawa in December[94][95] but Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto told the parliament that the joint military exercise does not have the islands specifically in mind.[96]
- On 14 October, Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, along with other members of the LDP party filed a complaint against Google Maps demanding the removal of the Chinese name of Diaoyutai from the interactive map services. Google refused, stating that they wish to remain neutral.[97]
2011
- June - On 29 June 2011, a fishing boat from Taiwan, named "Tafa 268", with some activists aboard, navigated to waters some 23 nautical miles off the disputed Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands in the morning. The Japanese coast guard immediately mobilized four patrol vessels to block the “Tafa 268”, and a Japanese helicopter was also dispatched to monitor the Taiwanese boat. The Coast Guard Agency (CGA) Keelung office of Taiwan had sent five patrol vessels to there and managed to break the Japanese blockade to sail close to the Taiwanese fishing boat. Both sides of coast guard vessels reiterated the disputed islands were their own territory but no collision happened, and "Tafa 268" set off for home escorted by the CGA vessels after a 25-minute standoff.[98][99]
- July: On 3~4 July, nine Japanese fishing boats, including one owned by a senior official of a Japanese nationalist group, were fishing near the islands. Beijing lodged a stern remonstration with Tokyo on July 4, 2011, over such Japanese fishing activities. Chinese Foreign Ministry demands that Japanese fishing vessels be immediately withdrawn.[100][101][102] On the morning of 3 July, the Japan Coast Guard found that Chinese fishery patrol vessel “Fishery 201″ in waters near the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Japanese patrol vessels issued a warning “Do not enter Japanese territorial waters “. China “Fishery 201″ then responded that it was conducting legitimate task in that the waters around the Diaoyu Islands under the jurisdiction of China.[103] Also on July 4, two Chinese military aircraft approached the disputed islands. When the planes came within 37 miles of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, the Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) immediately scrambled an F-15 to intercept them.[104]
- November:
- Apparently influenced by the dispute with China over the Senkakus, Japan vocally supported the United States at the November 2011 East Asia Summit in declaring that the South China Sea, much of which China claims, is under the jurisdiction of international maritime law and any disputes over the area must be resolved through multi-national cooperation and dialogue. China, in contrast, declared that any disputes over possession of the South China Sea should be resolved bilaterally, not through multi-nationational forums or talks.[105]
- In advance of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's planned December 2011 state visit to the PRC, the PRC government requested that the two countries begin negotiations over national boundaries in the East China Sea. According to Kyodo News, the proposal by China appeared to be an effort to get Japan to acknowledge that a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands existed.[106]
2012
- January:
- On 1 January 2012, four members of the Ishigaki municipal assembly visited Uotsuri Island. Ishigaki's mayor, however, stated that the four may have acted without proper authority and people wishing to visit the island should first obtain permission from the Japanese central government.[107] In response, a group of Chinese activists from Hong Kong attempted to sail to the islands to protests the Japanese actions, but were blocked by Hong Kong- based coast guard authorities and forced to return to port.[108][109]
- On 16 January, Japan announced that it would name 39 previously unnamed, uninhabited islets that it claims in the East China Sea, including four in the Senkaku Island chain. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin stated: "Our stance is very clear on the issue of the Diaoyu Islands. China has indisputable sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands that have been an inherent part of China since ancient times."[110][better source needed] Japan completed naming all the islands by 3 March 2012, including Hokusei Kojima and three other islets near the Senkakus.[111] In response, China gave its own names to the previously unnamed islets and PRC foreign minister Yang Jiechi urged Japan to "'fully recognise' the complexity and sensitivity of issues concerning history and the Diaoyu Islands" and "'properly handle these sensitive issues' based on the overall interests of the China-Japan relationship."[112][113][better source needed] Taiwan responded by disagreeing with both the PRC's and Japan's naming of the islands, with foreign minister Timothy Yang stating that Taiwan would handle the matter according to its own national interests.[114]
- On 21 January, Diet lawmakers Koichi Mukoyama and Yoshitaka Shind� surveyed the islands by ship and later stated that the islands, several of which are still private property of Japanese citizens, needed to be fully nationalized. Their visit was the first by national politicians since 1997.[115]
- March: On 16 March, the PRC sent maritime patrol boats Haijian 50 and Haijian 66 to patrol near the Senkaku Islands, with foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin announcing that the move was to help safeguard the PRC's territory and that the islands were part of PRC's territory. The crew of a nearby Japanese coast guard vessel stated that the Haijian 50 entered Japanese territorial waters for 25 minutes and warned the ship to leave. A Japanese government spokesman later stated that the ship had not actually entered Japanese waters, but the Japanese government lodged an official protest with the Chinese ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua.[116][117] According to the People's Daily 21 March 2012, an unnamed official of the State Oceanic Administration stated that the PRC intends to patrol the Diaoyu Islands in order to challenge a potential future Japanese claim to the islands based on the international 50-year standard "statute of limitations" for claiming possession of a territory.[118]
- July:
- On 4 July, Coastguard vessels from Taiwan and Japan collided in waters near a disputed island chain Wednesday, as the Taiwanese vessel was escorting activists to the area.[119]
- On 7 July, the Japanese Prime Minister stated that these islands are an integral part of his country and the Government is considering their purchase from the Japanese owner.[120]
- Three Chinese patrol vessels entered the disputed waters around these islands on 11 July 2012.[121] On 15 July 2012, Japan recalled their ambassador to China to work on the response to the transgression.[122] In late July, Japanese officials have raised alarms regarding increased Chinese military expansion.[123]
- August
- On 8 August, after a meeting between the Japanese Defense Minister and the American Defense Secretary, it was announced that UAVs would be used to conduct surveillance around Okinawa, which will include the Senkaku Islands.[124][125]
- On 15 August, ships carrying activists from Hong Kong approached the islands, but were stopped by the Japan Coast Guard. Seven activists jumped from the ships to swim ashore, five of whom reached the island; the other two turned back to the ships. The activists and their ship were detained by Japanese authorities.[126] The detained activists were deported two days later.[127]
- On 18 August, a flotilla of four boats[128] carrying about 150 Japanese activists[129] organized by right-wing group Ganbare Nippon arrived at the islands. The activists stated that they wished to commemorate Japanese World War II deaths in the area. When the activists were denied permission to land, several of them swam to the islands.[130] Ten activists swam to the islands and made an unauthorized landing on Uotsuri, where they raised Japanese flags.[131][132]
- China’s Foreign Ministry protested the event before it happened saying that unilateral action by Japan on the islands "is illegal and invalid." China also lodged a formal complaint,[vague] and urged Japan to prevent frictions from escalating more.[133] The flotilla arrival at the archipelago also set off anti-Japanese rallies in more than 25 Chinese cities,[134][135] and 100 people gathered near Japan's consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to demand that the Japanese leave the islands.[129] Chinese protestors overturned Japanese-branded cars and smashed windows of Japanese-themed businesses.[133][136]
- On 26 August 2012, the Japanese government announced it is making a ¥2 billion bid for the Senkaku Islands to bring them under state control around next month.[137]
- September
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There was a clash between China & Vietnamese Naval forces at the Spratley Islands in 1988....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy2ZrFphSmc
Perhaps a simple analysis (refer to link above) shows that China bullies Vietnam in 1988 clash at the sea. The Vietnameses has a very weak naval forces at that time and the Chineses forces threw all their large weapons at the Vietnamese troops who was stationed on the waist hight reef.
I guess China is smart. If the opposing force is much stronger than their's, they would not dare to try something similar to the 1988. Loosing to Jp sure to make them "loose-face".
Any body has any historical reference on the China-Vietnam Sea Clash to add? ^o^