China Seen Wipping Up Anti-Japan Demonstrations. Anti-Japan protests across China intensified over the weekend as demonstrators vandalized Japanese products and businesses in more than fifty cities.
With Japanese companies announcing plans to close temporarily, tensions between Asia’s two great powers mount. The protests, coming after Japan purchased the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China, to which countries claim as sovereign territory, are believed to be the worst in years. Japan finalized a deal to purchase three of the islands from their private owner last week. The move was likely taken to prevent tensions with China from escalating further after the outspoken governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, said that he planned to buy them for development. China Develops Its Strategic Airlift Capability. China's Risky Strategy in Maritime Disputes. In Dispute Over Islands, a Chance for Beijing. Why Nationalism is Driving China and Japan Apart. Nationalism once again threatens to undermine the relative calm in the China-Japan relationship that has prevailed since the 2010 Senkaku crisis.
Although Chinese leaders are the oft-cited pawns of nationalist agitators, since April Japanese leaders appear to be seduced by the efforts of the controversial Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro to buy the disputed Senkaku Islands. If the sale is completed when the government’s current lease expires, it could trigger a potentially devastating crisis in Sino-Japanese relations. Japanese leaders seem unable or unwilling to condemn Ishihara’s efforts, which have unsurprisingly triggered assertive responses from China. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. on April 17, Ishihara suggested that his government might be interested in purchasing four of the Senkaku islands from their private owners.
This is not the first time nationalists in Japan have triggered crises over the islands. China's Self-Absorbed Nationalism. Beijing has long interwoven strands of victimization and self-righteousness into Chinese nationalism, which have made compromise more difficult.
By Robert Sutter for The Diplomat August 31, 2012 Facebook3 Twitter0 Google+6. The Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands: Narrative of an empty space. The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands: Dangerous shoals.