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China 'moves drilling equipment' into disputed waters
- Thread starter Rahul92
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SHASH2K2
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East Asia showdown: China, Japan and a failure of diplomacy
TAIPEI, Taiwan — A minor spat over a fishing boat has escalated to one of the worst diplomatic feuds between China and Japan in years.
With still no end in sight to the two-week-old dispute, China has added a series of harsh countermeasures to its already shrill rhetoric. It has cut off all high-level ties with Japan (those at the ministerial or provincial level or above), halted talks on more China-Japan flights and aviation rights, and postponed meetings on coal and joint gas exploration, according to China's state-run newswire Xinhua.
Those moves came after a local Japanese court on Sunday extended by another 10 days the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain at the center of the row. Meanwhile, Tokyo has continued to deny the very existence of a territorial dispute in the islands northeast of Taiwan where the Japanese Coast Guard arrested the captain.
Called the Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, the islets are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan. Japan effectively controls them through its coast guard presence. (See previous article for background.)
While no-one is expecting armed conflict any time soon, the episode has troubling implications for East Asia's security outlook in coming years. It highlights the deep reservoirs of mistrust and animosity that remain some 65 years after World War II's end — and the failure of diplomacy, at least so far, to bridge that divide.
"Both China and Japan still lack the wisdom and ability to reconcile at this point," said Shen Dingli, an international relations expert at Fudan University in Shanghai, in a telephone interview.
The fishing boat is not the only sore point in China-Japan relations now. Japan is mad at China for buying too many yen-denominated bonds, helping push the currency to a 15-year high and so making Japanese exports less competitive just as its trying to get out of the economic doldrums.
To top it off, China blames Japan over a panda who died of a suspected heart attack at a Japanese zoo while keepers tried to extract semen for breeding purposes, saying it was the wrong season for such a procedure.
Echoing conflict
The conflict's effects go beyond the two Asian giants. Taiwan waded into the mess last week, sending coast guard vessels to guard an activist who was trumpeting Taiwan's own claim to the islets. (Taiwan's ships left the area after a standoff.)
The U.S. put its oar in, too, with a senior Pentagon official calling for China-Japan talks to resolve the dispute and a former top U.S. official reminding China of America's security obligations to Japan.
"My view is what China senses is a distracted United States who has a chilled relationship with Tokyo," former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in Japan last week, according to the Japan Times. "So they are testing what they can get away with."
U.S. officials are on record saying that the U.S.-Japan defense treaty applies to the disputed islets and surrounding waters, since they are effectively under Japan's administration. That means the U.S. could in theory be called on to help Japan in any military conflict with China over the islets, though some observers pooh-pooh that idea.
Troubled legacy
China-Japan ties had improved under more China-friendly Japanese prime ministers since 2006, when Junichiro Koizumi stepped down. The two sides even inked a 2008 agreement on the joint exploration of a disputed gas field in the East China Sea, one of their thorniest disputes.
But historical distrust remains, more than 100 years after Japan snatched Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty, and later, in the early 1930s, invaded and occupied much of China. Saturday's small anti-Japan protests in Beijing and other cities marked the anniversary of an incident that led to Japan's occupation.
Anti-Japan sentiment is easily whipped up in China, where nationalist netizens refer to their neighbor patronizingly as "little Japan." For its part, Japan, while all too eager to do business with China, doesn't have a very good image of the giant to the west. Concerns range from the safety of Chinese food imports to China's increased military muscle-flexing.
"Even though Japan-China relations are much better than under Koizumi, Japan's impression of China is not very good," said Tadahiro Ishihara, at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations in Taipei. "There's dissatisfaction over many things."
Only 26 percent of Japanese have a favorable view of China, according to the latest Pew Research Center poll, down from 55 percent in 2002.
Japan: mistrust, inexperience
Ishihara said Japanese Coast Guard had a harsher than usual attitude in this case; usually they release people quickly after detaining them. He said the current Japanese government's inexperience and infighting may partly explain how a minor spat has ballooned into a major diplomatic row.
The one-year-old Japanese government has sought to curb the power of career bureaucrats, including those at the foreign ministry, but the results have been mixed. "This government doesn't have foreign relations sense, they're inexperienced," said Ishihara. "There are more political considerations now."
Still, Ishihara said some in Japan believed that the Chinese government had encouraged fishermen to go to the Senkaku to "test Japan's attitude and reaction." "It's possible," he said. "You can't rule it out."
Koji Murata, an international relations professor at Kyoto's Doshisha University, seconded that notion, saying China may have been taking advantage of political uncertainty in Japan to test Tokyo. Prime Minister Naoto Kan last week survived a leadership challenge in a closely watched contest just three months into his term.
"Beijing probably tried to provoke Japan during Japanese domestic political turmoil," he wrote in an email. "So far, however, Tokyo has responded very reasonably, while Beijing very emotionally. The contrast is clear enough for the international community, I believe."
"This provocation may make Mr. Kan's new Cabinet seek closer security ties with Washington and reconsider Japan's defense posture and budgets," he wrote.
On Monday, Taiwan's United Evening News, citing Japanese media, reported that Japan was mulling its first expansion of its land forces since 1972, with a focus on its "western islands" (including Okinawa and the disputed Senkaku).
China: newly assertive, brash
Fudan University's Shen said China and Japan had many positive interactions in recent years, but that some conflict was inevitable, especially as China's fishing fleet and other economic interests press into waters near Japan. He said Japan's growing economic dependence on China, and China's economic and military rise, had changed the equation in the disputed Diaoyu islets.
"They [Japan's Coast Guard] have been there for years illegally, and China has been curtailing itself for years in order not to have a war," said Shen. "What's changed is that our people are less willing to do this, and our government is more capable of enforcing our claim."
Shen said China told its fishermen told not to sail near the disputed islets in order to avoid trouble, but that some fishermen simply ignored the government.
He said China had many means of retaliating against Japan, and wouldn't be shy about using them. "Every day our man is held, we are hurt," said Shen. "But there are places where we can hurt Japan. For instance, Japan still wants to be a member of the U.N. Security Council. Dream. No way."
"As long as a country named China exists on earth, a country named Japan wouldn't have the slightest chance of being considered a new member of the U.N. Security Council," he said.
Shen compared the cutting of high-level ties with Japan to China's cutting of China-U.S. military ties after the U.S. sold Taiwan $6.5-billion in weaponry earlier this year.
Still, he said the fishing boat dispute was far less serious than U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, and called for a quick resolution.
"We should both restrain [ourselves], never resort to war, each give the other face and have the least harmful, non-violent settlement as early as possible," said Shen.
Plenty of precedent
Philip Yang, a former adviser to Taiwan's national security council, said Taiwan's government has dealt with numerous incidents of Taiwanese fishing boats being detained by the Japanese. (In fact, Japan detained the owner and skipper of a Taiwan fishing vessel the same week as it detained the Chinese captain.)
Usually such disputes are resolved quietly, said Yang, with the Taiwan fishing boat owner having to pay a 300,000 to 400,000 yen ($3,500 to $4,600) fine to Japan to secure its release.
"But in this case, it's more difficult," he said. "From Japan's point of view, the fishing vessel intentionally tried to hit the coast guard vessels, and so they say they need more time to investigate."
The limits for ships near the Diaoyutai are well-known, said Yang, with a 12-nautical-mile no-go zone around the disputed islets and a 24-nautical-mile buffer, both enforced by the Japanese coast guard. "If you enter 24 [nautical miles] they try to stop you, if you enter 12 nautical miles they will try to arrest you," he said.
Twelve nautical miles is an often-used demarcation for territorial waters; many nations also now claim a 200-mile "exclusive economic zone" in which they have sole rights to fishing, oil, gas or other resources.
No easy way out
There are some signs that both governments are looking to defuse the situation to some extent.
Both China and Taiwan have blocked most activists from sailing to the islands and complicating the situation. And the Chinese government has also tried to tamp down anti-Japan protests and anti-Japan sentiment on the internet, before it spins out of control.
The new Japanese foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, has been making conciliatory statements and calling for calm, despite his reputation as something of a foreign policy "hawk."
But analysts say neither side looks inclined to accept third-party mediation on the matter. Neither is willing to take the underlying territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice, which has arbitrated similar disagreements. Even if the ICJ did address it, Taiwan's rival claim would greatly complicate a resolution.
Meanwhile, the Chinese captain remains in detention — and China's foreign ministry shows no signs of softening its tone.
"If the Japanese side clings obstinately to its own course and doubles its mistakes, China will take strong countermeasures, for which Japan shall bear all the consequences," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said today.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — A minor spat over a fishing boat has escalated to one of the worst diplomatic feuds between China and Japan in years.
With still no end in sight to the two-week-old dispute, China has added a series of harsh countermeasures to its already shrill rhetoric. It has cut off all high-level ties with Japan (those at the ministerial or provincial level or above), halted talks on more China-Japan flights and aviation rights, and postponed meetings on coal and joint gas exploration, according to China's state-run newswire Xinhua.
Those moves came after a local Japanese court on Sunday extended by another 10 days the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain at the center of the row. Meanwhile, Tokyo has continued to deny the very existence of a territorial dispute in the islands northeast of Taiwan where the Japanese Coast Guard arrested the captain.
Called the Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, the islets are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan. Japan effectively controls them through its coast guard presence. (See previous article for background.)
While no-one is expecting armed conflict any time soon, the episode has troubling implications for East Asia's security outlook in coming years. It highlights the deep reservoirs of mistrust and animosity that remain some 65 years after World War II's end — and the failure of diplomacy, at least so far, to bridge that divide.
"Both China and Japan still lack the wisdom and ability to reconcile at this point," said Shen Dingli, an international relations expert at Fudan University in Shanghai, in a telephone interview.
The fishing boat is not the only sore point in China-Japan relations now. Japan is mad at China for buying too many yen-denominated bonds, helping push the currency to a 15-year high and so making Japanese exports less competitive just as its trying to get out of the economic doldrums.
To top it off, China blames Japan over a panda who died of a suspected heart attack at a Japanese zoo while keepers tried to extract semen for breeding purposes, saying it was the wrong season for such a procedure.
Echoing conflict
The conflict's effects go beyond the two Asian giants. Taiwan waded into the mess last week, sending coast guard vessels to guard an activist who was trumpeting Taiwan's own claim to the islets. (Taiwan's ships left the area after a standoff.)
The U.S. put its oar in, too, with a senior Pentagon official calling for China-Japan talks to resolve the dispute and a former top U.S. official reminding China of America's security obligations to Japan.
"My view is what China senses is a distracted United States who has a chilled relationship with Tokyo," former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in Japan last week, according to the Japan Times. "So they are testing what they can get away with."
U.S. officials are on record saying that the U.S.-Japan defense treaty applies to the disputed islets and surrounding waters, since they are effectively under Japan's administration. That means the U.S. could in theory be called on to help Japan in any military conflict with China over the islets, though some observers pooh-pooh that idea.
Troubled legacy
China-Japan ties had improved under more China-friendly Japanese prime ministers since 2006, when Junichiro Koizumi stepped down. The two sides even inked a 2008 agreement on the joint exploration of a disputed gas field in the East China Sea, one of their thorniest disputes.
But historical distrust remains, more than 100 years after Japan snatched Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty, and later, in the early 1930s, invaded and occupied much of China. Saturday's small anti-Japan protests in Beijing and other cities marked the anniversary of an incident that led to Japan's occupation.
Anti-Japan sentiment is easily whipped up in China, where nationalist netizens refer to their neighbor patronizingly as "little Japan." For its part, Japan, while all too eager to do business with China, doesn't have a very good image of the giant to the west. Concerns range from the safety of Chinese food imports to China's increased military muscle-flexing.
"Even though Japan-China relations are much better than under Koizumi, Japan's impression of China is not very good," said Tadahiro Ishihara, at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations in Taipei. "There's dissatisfaction over many things."
Only 26 percent of Japanese have a favorable view of China, according to the latest Pew Research Center poll, down from 55 percent in 2002.
Japan: mistrust, inexperience
Ishihara said Japanese Coast Guard had a harsher than usual attitude in this case; usually they release people quickly after detaining them. He said the current Japanese government's inexperience and infighting may partly explain how a minor spat has ballooned into a major diplomatic row.
The one-year-old Japanese government has sought to curb the power of career bureaucrats, including those at the foreign ministry, but the results have been mixed. "This government doesn't have foreign relations sense, they're inexperienced," said Ishihara. "There are more political considerations now."
Still, Ishihara said some in Japan believed that the Chinese government had encouraged fishermen to go to the Senkaku to "test Japan's attitude and reaction." "It's possible," he said. "You can't rule it out."
Koji Murata, an international relations professor at Kyoto's Doshisha University, seconded that notion, saying China may have been taking advantage of political uncertainty in Japan to test Tokyo. Prime Minister Naoto Kan last week survived a leadership challenge in a closely watched contest just three months into his term.
"Beijing probably tried to provoke Japan during Japanese domestic political turmoil," he wrote in an email. "So far, however, Tokyo has responded very reasonably, while Beijing very emotionally. The contrast is clear enough for the international community, I believe."
"This provocation may make Mr. Kan's new Cabinet seek closer security ties with Washington and reconsider Japan's defense posture and budgets," he wrote.
On Monday, Taiwan's United Evening News, citing Japanese media, reported that Japan was mulling its first expansion of its land forces since 1972, with a focus on its "western islands" (including Okinawa and the disputed Senkaku).
China: newly assertive, brash
Fudan University's Shen said China and Japan had many positive interactions in recent years, but that some conflict was inevitable, especially as China's fishing fleet and other economic interests press into waters near Japan. He said Japan's growing economic dependence on China, and China's economic and military rise, had changed the equation in the disputed Diaoyu islets.
"They [Japan's Coast Guard] have been there for years illegally, and China has been curtailing itself for years in order not to have a war," said Shen. "What's changed is that our people are less willing to do this, and our government is more capable of enforcing our claim."
Shen said China told its fishermen told not to sail near the disputed islets in order to avoid trouble, but that some fishermen simply ignored the government.
He said China had many means of retaliating against Japan, and wouldn't be shy about using them. "Every day our man is held, we are hurt," said Shen. "But there are places where we can hurt Japan. For instance, Japan still wants to be a member of the U.N. Security Council. Dream. No way."
"As long as a country named China exists on earth, a country named Japan wouldn't have the slightest chance of being considered a new member of the U.N. Security Council," he said.
Shen compared the cutting of high-level ties with Japan to China's cutting of China-U.S. military ties after the U.S. sold Taiwan $6.5-billion in weaponry earlier this year.
Still, he said the fishing boat dispute was far less serious than U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, and called for a quick resolution.
"We should both restrain [ourselves], never resort to war, each give the other face and have the least harmful, non-violent settlement as early as possible," said Shen.
Plenty of precedent
Philip Yang, a former adviser to Taiwan's national security council, said Taiwan's government has dealt with numerous incidents of Taiwanese fishing boats being detained by the Japanese. (In fact, Japan detained the owner and skipper of a Taiwan fishing vessel the same week as it detained the Chinese captain.)
Usually such disputes are resolved quietly, said Yang, with the Taiwan fishing boat owner having to pay a 300,000 to 400,000 yen ($3,500 to $4,600) fine to Japan to secure its release.
"But in this case, it's more difficult," he said. "From Japan's point of view, the fishing vessel intentionally tried to hit the coast guard vessels, and so they say they need more time to investigate."
The limits for ships near the Diaoyutai are well-known, said Yang, with a 12-nautical-mile no-go zone around the disputed islets and a 24-nautical-mile buffer, both enforced by the Japanese coast guard. "If you enter 24 [nautical miles] they try to stop you, if you enter 12 nautical miles they will try to arrest you," he said.
Twelve nautical miles is an often-used demarcation for territorial waters; many nations also now claim a 200-mile "exclusive economic zone" in which they have sole rights to fishing, oil, gas or other resources.
No easy way out
There are some signs that both governments are looking to defuse the situation to some extent.
Both China and Taiwan have blocked most activists from sailing to the islands and complicating the situation. And the Chinese government has also tried to tamp down anti-Japan protests and anti-Japan sentiment on the internet, before it spins out of control.
The new Japanese foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, has been making conciliatory statements and calling for calm, despite his reputation as something of a foreign policy "hawk."
But analysts say neither side looks inclined to accept third-party mediation on the matter. Neither is willing to take the underlying territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice, which has arbitrated similar disagreements. Even if the ICJ did address it, Taiwan's rival claim would greatly complicate a resolution.
Meanwhile, the Chinese captain remains in detention — and China's foreign ministry shows no signs of softening its tone.
"If the Japanese side clings obstinately to its own course and doubles its mistakes, China will take strong countermeasures, for which Japan shall bear all the consequences," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said today.
SHASH2K2
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Obama to Meet With ASEAN Leaders as Territorial Tensions Flare
President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders meet in New York Friday, September 24, as relations between East Asia's two big powers - China and Japan - are increasingly strained. Territorial disputes with China over uninhabited islands in the western Pacific are expected to dominate the discussions.
South China Sea territorial claims
President Obama and leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to call for a peaceful solution to the South China Sea territorial dispute.
The issue flared up earlier this year when China claimed the vital shipping lane as part of its core national interest. Last month, its navy planted a flag at the bottom of the South China Sea in a show of sovereignty.
But the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also have claims on the South China Sea, and the uninhabited Spratly Island chain within it. In 1988, Vietnam and China fought deadly clashes there.
The seabed around the islands is thought to be rich in resources such as oil and gas.
This week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu warned ASEAN and the U.S. against issuing a statement on the region.
Jiang says outside parties should not interfere with the dispute. She says the issue should not be internationalized because it will not solve the problem and would only make it complicated.
Multilateral approach
ASEAN has called for multilateral talks to settle South China Sea boundaries but Beijing rejects that idea.
In July, U.S. Secretary State Hillary Clinton told ASEAN foreign ministers that Washington has an interest in keeping the waters open to all.
Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, says Washington must raise its engagement with ASEAN, but not to isolate China.
"Southeast Asians have shown they're quite concerned about what China is doing and how China will respond," said Tay. "The U.S.-ASEAN summit, if it is to be useful, will not be simply the U.S. trying to get ASEAN countries to get into the U.S. orbit again, wholly on their side, because Southeast Asian countries would be stupid to do that. But I think it will be a kind of strategic dialogue that can then triangulate with China and the rest of Asia."
Chinese Boat captain detained
Friday's meeting comes as relations between China and Japan have deteriorated over a separate territorial dispute. Japan detained a Chinese boat captain earlier this month, after a collision between his boat and Japanese patrol boats near islands Beijing and Tokyo both claim.
Beijing cut off government exchanges with Tokyo and Premier Wen Jiabao says Beijing will take further measures against Japan if the captain is not immediately released.
Kitti Prasirtsuk, an associate dean of international relations at Thammasat University in Thailand, says the situation has implications for ASEAN.
"The issue between Japan and China is not different from what's happening in the South China Sea," said Kitti. "I think the Chinese stance would definitely affect ASEAN sentiments"¦. It would even heighten the importance of the talks about the South China Sea."
Kitti adds ASEAN would like U.S. involvement in the region but not to the extent that it jeopardizes ties with China, a top source of investments and trade.
"China-ASEAN trade will grow anyway because our [economic] interdependence has been increasing over the past decade or so. ASEAN has to play a delicate game to get the U.S. involved so as to check China a bit as well," said Kitti.
The meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations' annual General Assembly will be the second between President Obama and ASEAN leaders.
Fighting terrorism
The talks also are expected to include security cooperation, especially in the fight against terrorism.
Patricio Abinales is a Philippine scholar and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. He expects more U.S. assistance to Thailand and the Philippines, focused on their southern regions, which have been wracked by Muslim insurgencies.
"The U.S. will continue to be concerned about the way al-Qaida [and] Jemaah Islamiyah operate in the region," he said. "They've also realized the Islamic-related tensions in Southeast Asia, with the exception of Indonesia, are very indigenous and homegrown and so the aim there is to try to keep it at a low level, negotiate with local Islamic movements and assist the governments of Thailand and the Philippines deal with more extremist groups."
The U.S. Agency on International Development started a five-year $30 million program in southern Thailand earlier this year, and has poured at least US$345 million into Mindanao in the Philippines since 2000.
Friday's meeting will be Mr. Obama's first meeting with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, who took office in June.
However, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be absent. President Obama's visit to Indonesia, another ally in the war on terrorism, has been postponed three times this year. Jakarta says the president has previous commitments and will send Vice President Boediono instead.
China's premier ratchets up pressure on Japan in diplomatic dispute
Wen Jiabao, China's premier, has stepped up the war of words with Japan, warning Tokyo that it will "bear all the consequences" of a row over the detention of a Chinese trawler skipper.
Mr Wen, speaking in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly, urged Japan "immediately and unconditionally" to release the captain who was detained on September 8 after a run-in with two Japanese coastguard cutters in disputed waters in the East China Sea.
Tokyo "bears full responsibility for the situation, and it will bear all consequences," Mr Wen said to a gathering of overseas Chinese nationals hours after China's foreign ministry made clear that he would not meet his Japanese counterpart on the sidelines of the New York meeting.Relations between China and Japan are now at their lowest point since long-running tensions flared in 2005, with China issuing an increasingly angry series of rebukes to Japan and cancelling several high-level cultural and business exchanges in protest at the captain's detention.
Japan made an apparently conciliatory gesture on Wednesday, calling for high-level talks to prevent the dispute from spiralling any further. "If possible, it would be good to quickly hold high-level talks, including broad, strategic discussions," said Yoshito Sengoku, Japan's chief cabinet secretary.
In New York, Seiji Maehara, Japan's foreign minister, said that no meetings had been set up with his Chinese counterparts in New York and gave no hint of any concessions even as he pledged that Japan hoped to build a "solid, strategic partnership" with China. He added that the detention of the Chinese boat captain was a "legal issue" and rejected any Chinese territorial claims over the disputed chain of islands – known as Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese – where the incident took place.
"The Senkaku islands are Japan's own territory, and there is no territorial issue," Mr Maehara said. "If something happens, we deal with it in accordance with domestic laws."
China has rejected any legal action against the boat captain – who faces up to three years in Jail if convicted on possible charges of obstructing Japanese authorities – as "illegal and unfounded".
Analysts say that China, which does not recognise Japan's jurisdiction over the islands, fears the Japan is trying to set a legal precedent by any prosecution it might mount over the incident.
The current row is the most serious since 2005 when a series of anti-Japanese demonstrations swept China in protest at a Japanese history textbook and a proposal to grant Japan a UN Security Council seat.
China, Japan spat in East China Sea
Shamshad A. Khan
September 22, 2010
China has taken a hard-line stance over Japan's continuing detention of the captain of the Chinese fishing trawler which was involved in a collision with Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats near the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. The Senkaku islands are administered by Japan but contested by China and Taiwan. The September 7 incident near the disputed territory has developed into a diplomatic flap between the two countries with China cutting ministerial and higher level exchanges with Japan in response to an Okinawa court's further extension of the detention of the Chinese captain who has been charged with illegally operating in Japanese waters and obstructing Japanese officers from performing their duties.
Beijing has also postponed talks with Tokyo over a treaty on the development of a joint gas field in the East China Sea slated to be signed later this month, and has reportedly dispatched drilling equipment to the disputed gas field known as Shirakaba in Japan and as Chunxiao in China.
The Chinese action in the East China Sea is certainly an over-reaction to the incident. Beijing is using these tactics to ensure the release of the trawler's skipper as Chinese nationalists are asking it to take harsher measures. In reaction to Japan's detention of the fishing vessel's captain, Chinese activists staged protests in Beijing holding placards reading "Get the Japanese out of the Diaoyu Islands," "Overthrow small Japan". Chinese zealots had done similar acts in the past, perhaps with the backing of Chinese officials, to claim sovereignty over the disputed island. Japan had arrested seven Chinese activists in 2004 when they landed on one of the islands near Okinawa. China on that occasion had used similar tactics and Japan had to release the activists without indicting them.
But this time Japan has indicated that it is not going to cave in to Beijing's pressure and the detention of the Chinese captain will continue. Japan is also mulling the conduct of its own test drilling as a "countermeasure" and also plans to reinforce surveillance with P-3C patrol aircraft in the area. On its part, it has cancelled a bilateral summit meeting between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao at the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting in New York next week.1
Seen historically, the uninhabited Senkaku Islands in dispute was incorporated into Japanese territory in 1895 as part of the Okinawa Prefecture. China and Taiwan, which called them Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai respectively, began their sovereignty claim over the Japanese administered territory in the 1970s. The development coincided with the confirmation of the existence of offshore resources, including oil and gas. The territorial sovereignty issue became more problematic for the leadership of Japan and China as they found it difficult to manage the issue amid rising patriotism in the two countries an integral part of which was claims over the territory. Referring to the disputed Senkaku land issue, Deng Xioping had said in 1978 that, "People of our generation lack wisdom. The next generation is expected to be wiser." But after a generation, the two sides have yet to find a solution that is acceptable to both sides.2 Instead, the sovereignty issue has aggravated further with the rise of Chinese military power. In 1992, China incorporated Diayotai Islands (in East China Sea) along with the Paracels and Spartly Islands (in South China Sea) by passing the "Laws of Territorial Waters and Contiguous Zone". The law, for the first time, authorized the Chinese Navy to use force to evict foreign naval vessels operating in these waters. Since the 1990s, China has been claiming that these areas in the South China Sea and the East China Sea are a part of its territory which had been taken away when China was weak.3
Seen against this context, it seems that China is deliberately manoeuvring nationalistic sentiments to assert its claim and regain its so-called lost territory. China is usually harsh on clamping down on protests but it allowed the Baodiao activist committee, a group demanding that China assert its authority over the Senkaku Islands, to take out a march on September 3 when Beijing was celebrating the 65th anniversary of China's victory over Japan in World War II. The group even dared to demonstrate near China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and accused the government of "betraying the country" for agreeing to co-develop the East China Sea natural gas fields with Japan.4
The recent change in the cabinet portfolio in Naoto Kan government has made the issue more difficult for China. A "China hawk" Seiji Maehara has taken over from a "dove", Tetsuya Okada, as Japanese Foreign Minister on September 16. As soon as Maehara was appointed Foreign Minister, China Central Television, quoting the Japanese media, reported that a "hawk (on China) has been appointed" as Japan's new foreign minister. Maehara's reputation is largely attributed to his past remarks. In a speech at a US think tank in late 2005, Maehara, then leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, called China a "realistic threat," noting that it was building up and modernizing its military capabilities.5 In his first news conference after assuming office, he reiterated that "there is no territorial problem in the East China Sea" as the Senkaku Islands belong to Japan and Japan will take "appropriate steps" if evidence of China's drilling on the Shirakaba gas field is confirmed.6 These remarks suggest that the new leadership in Tokyo's foreign ministry is not likely to back down even if China uses this standoff to test Japan.
The China-Japan spat over the disputed territory has seriously dashed Japan's hope of transforming the disputed sea into a "Sea of Fraternity", a sentiment that was expressed by former Prime Minister Hatoyama. For his part, Chinese President Hu Jintao had also earlier expressed his desire to make the area a "sea of peace, friendship and cooperation". It is not clear how the latest diplomatic standoff will pan out. But if the dispute is not managed and left to linger, it may emerge as a flashpoint between the two Asian powers with a serious impact on regional security.
Mismatched intentions end up intensifying Japan-China row over islands
It wasn't so long ago that Japan-China relations were at an all-time low due to differences in historical perceptions. But now, a new rift is widening between the two Asian giants, which has led to the cancellation of private-sector and Cabinet-level exchanges.
The latest flare-up--over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain accused of ramming two Japan Coast Guard vessels in disputed waters--is complicated by differences in how the two sides are trying to resolve the matter in ways that meet with public approval in their respective countries.
Tokyo's efforts to avoid a full-scale diplomatic row by handling the collisions in the East China Sea as a purely domestic legal issue clearly backfired and stoked the flames in Beijing.
As for Japan's official position, no territorial dispute exists with China over the Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyutai by Chinese, where the incident occurred two weeks ago.
Meantime, Chinese officials, who maintain that no compromise is possible when it comes to territorial disputes, apparently had been crossing their fingers that Tokyo would exert subtle political pressure on judicial authorities to resolve the dispute quickly, analysts say.
That, of course, has not happened.
According to diplomatic sources, Chinese authorities, in official talks with Japanese, have not addressed the issue of which side initiated the collision.
Video footage taken by the coast guard shows the Chinese trawler deliberately ramming a patrol ship, officials said, supporting Tokyo's claim that the trawler captain obstructed them in carrying out their duties. Soon after the incident, however, Chinese media accused Japan of instigating the collision. For its part, Beijing has done nothing to set the record straight.
Instead, Chinese officials skipped the issue of how the incident came about and focused on Beijing's claim of sovereignty. They say Japan's decision to apply domestic law to waters around the islands is unacceptable.
Ironically, the Senkaku Islands issue was shelved as a pending matter between the two countries in 1978 when visiting Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said it would be better to put aside the issue for the time being.
At the time, Beijing was trying to strengthen its ties with Tokyo and rebuild its economy following the chaotic Cultural Revolution.
Now, however, with China set to replace Japan as the world's No. 2 economy, the need to avoid the issue has waned in Chinese minds, experts say.
"The situation has reached the point where it is impossible to show a conciliatory stance toward Japan," said one source working for a Chinese government think tank.
Tokyo's stance was reflected in comments made Monday by new Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara as to how the government would deal with the incident.
Maehara told reporters bluntly: "It's a matter that is being dealt with by prosecutors."
Later, he said prosecutors were "calmly dealing with the matter in accordance with domestic law."
Tokyo is determined not to allow the incident to be used as a pretext for any territorial claim by Beijing, which has shown a strong interest in maritime natural resources in waters off the Senkaku Islands.
However, contrary to Tokyo's insistence on handling the matter through legal procedures, Beijing apparently hoped that Tokyo would "exert prudent political judgment" in trying to resolve the matter, sources said.
This clearly was a reference to another incident involving the Senkaku Islands in March 2004 when the government under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi decided not to indict seven Chinese arrested on suspicion of illegally landing on the islands and to deport them to China.
Koizumi, who as prime minister caused severe strains in ties with China with repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, explained that the decision was "made from the standpoint of preventing damage to Japan-China relations."
"We are perplexed over the hard-line stance taken by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government," said one Chinese Foreign Ministry source.
While Chinese officials apparently hoped that similar measures would be taken this time, a Japanese Foreign Ministry source noted "the nature of this incident is clearly different from the one in 2004 which involved violations of the immigration law."
There are concerns even in Japan that the inflexibility demonstrated by the DPJ government could seriously impair relations with China.
"Japan must send a message to the Chinese side not to use the (diplomatic) card as it will endeavor to settle the matter (in a way that satisfies both sides)," said one Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who specializes in diplomacy. "As the issue becomes drawn out, it will become difficult for the Japanese side to compromise."
Shin Kawashima, an associate professor of Chinese diplomatic history at the University of Tokyo, noted that Tokyo, which administers the islands, must exert political skills in resolving the issue.
While he called the issue one that is important for Tokyo, he said the government should not insist on taking punitive measures.
"The government needs only to explain to the Japanese public that it handled the matter with principle, while leaving leeway for China to tell its people that it did not accept Tokyo's application of domestic law," Kawashima said.
He cautioned that in territorial disputes, when one country tries to deal with the issue under domestic law, it gives China reason to address it as a diplomatic problem.
Noting that issues pertaining to the East China Sea could shake bilateral relations to their foundation, he said, "It is important to try to set up behind-the-scenes dialogue at the political level" aside from the usual diplomatic channels.
According to sources, prosecutors are considering indicting the captain for obstructing coast guard officials in the execution of their public duties on Sept. 29, when the current period of detention is due to expire.
Zhan Qixiong, the skipper of the trawler, has admitted to both coast guard investigators and prosecutors that he rammed the patrol ships but justified his action on grounds that "Japanese ships entered Chinese territory."
Zhan's decision to contest the allegations against him resulted in his detention being extended, Japanese officials said.
A senior prosecutor said that judging from the way Zhan suddenly changed course and steered his vessel into the coast guard ships, he jeopardized the safety of the two vessels and their crew members.
Liu Jiangyong, a professor of international relations at the Institute of International Studies, Tsinghua University in Beijing, said prolonging the issue would only cause strained bilateral relations to deteriorate further.
"If the captain is indicted, the situation will become more serious, with the effects of icy relations spreading to economic affairs by the end of this year or early next year," Liu said in calling on Tokyo to swiftly release the captain.
He said the latest incident occurred in a particularly sensitive region for China, which has a number of unresolved territorial disputes.
"When operating in these waters, both Japan and China must be willing to compromise with one another," Liu said.
SHASH2K2
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China's Disputes in Asia Buttress Influence of U.S
BEIJING — For the last several years, one big theme has dominated talk of the future of Asia: As China rises, its neighbors are being inevitably drawn into its orbit, currying favor with the region's new hegemonic power.
The presumed loser, of course, is the United States, whose wealth and influence are being spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and whose economic troubles have eroded its standing in a more dynamic Asia.
But rising frictions between China and its neighbors in recent weeks over security issues have handed the United States an opportunity to reassert itself — one the Obama administration has been keen to take advantage of.
Washington is leaping into the middle of heated territorial disputes between China and Southeast Asian nations despite stern Chinese warnings that it mind its own business. The United States is carrying out naval exercises with South Korea in order to help Seoul rebuff threats from North Korea even though China is denouncing those exercises, saying that they intrude on areas where the Chinese military operates.
Meanwhile, China's increasingly tense standoff with Japan over a Chinese fishing trawler captured by Japanese ships in disputed waters is pushing Japan back under the American security umbrella.
The arena for these struggles is shifting this week to a summit meeting of world leaders at the United Nations. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, has refused to meet with his Japanese counterpart, Naoto Kan, and on Tuesday he threatened Japan with "further action" if it did not unconditionally release the fishing captain.
On Friday, President Obama is expected to meet with Southeast Asian leaders and promise that the United States is willing to help them peacefully settle South China Sea territorial disputes with China.
"The U.S. has been smart," said Carlyle A. Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy who studies security issues in Asia. "It has done well by coming to the assistance of countries in the region."
"All across the board, China is seeing the atmospherics change tremendously," he added. "The idea of the China threat, thanks to its own efforts, is being revived."
Asserting Chinese sovereignty over borderlands in contention — everywhere from Tibet to Taiwan to the South China Sea — has long been the top priority for Chinese nationalists, an obsession that overrides all other concerns. But this complicates China's attempts to present the country's rise as a boon for the whole region and creates wedges between China and its neighbors.
Nothing underscores that better than the escalating diplomatic conflict between China and Japan over the detention of the Chinese fishing captain, Zhan Qixiong, by the Japanese authorities, who say the captain rammed two Japanese vessels around the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. The islands are administered by Japan but claimed by both Japan and China.
The current dispute may strengthen the military alliance between the United States and Japan, as did an incident last April when a Chinese helicopter buzzed a Japanese destroyer. Such confrontations tend to remind Japanese officials, who have suggested that they need to refocus their foreign policy on China instead of America, that they rely on the United States to balance an unpredictable China, analysts say.
"Japan will have no choice but to further go into America's arms, to further beef up the U.S.-Japan alliance and its military power," said Huang Jing, a scholar of the Chinese military at the National University of Singapore.
In July, Southeast Asian nations, particularly Vietnam, applauded when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States was willing to help mediate a solution to disputes that those nations had with China over the South China Sea, which is rich in oil, natural gas and fish. China insists on dealing with Southeast Asian nations one on one, but Mrs. Clinton said the United States supported multilateral talks. Freedom of navigation in the sea is an American national interest, she said.
President Obama meets on Friday with leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean. The Associated Press reported that the participants would issue a joint statement opposing the "use or threat of force by any claimant attempting to enforce disputed claims in the South China Sea." The statement is clearly aimed at China, which has seized Vietnamese fishing vessels in recent years and detained their crews.
On Tuesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, criticized any attempt at mediation by the United States. "We firmly oppose any country having nothing to do with the South China Sea issue getting involved in the dispute," she said at a news conference in Beijing.
China has also been objecting to American plans to hold military exercises with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, which China claims as its exclusive military operations zone. The United States and South Korea want to send a stern message to North Korea over what Seoul says was the torpedoing last March of a South Korean warship by a North Korean submarine. China's belligerence serves only to reinforce South Korea's dependence on the American military.
American officials are increasingly concerned about the modernization of China's navy and its long-range abilities, as well as China's growing assertiveness in the surrounding waters. In March, a Chinese official told White House officials that the South China Sea was part of China's "core interest" of sovereignty, similar to Tibet and Taiwan, an American official said in an interview at the time. American officials also object to China's telling foreign oil companies not to work with Vietnam on developing oil fields in the South China Sea.
Some Chinese military leaders and analysts see an American effort to contain China. Feng Zhaokui, a Japan scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an article on Tuesday in The Global Times, a populist newspaper, that the United States was trying to "nurture a coalition against China."
In August, Rear Adm. Yang Yi wrote an editorial for The PLA Daily, published by the Chinese Army, in which he said that on one hand, Washington "wants China to play a role in regional security issues."
"On the other hand," he continued, "it is engaging in an increasingly tight encirclement of China and is constantly challenging China's core interests."
Asian countries suspicious of Chinese intentions see Washington as a natural ally. In April, the incident involving the Chinese helicopter and Japanese destroyer spooked many in Japan, making them feel vulnerable at a time when Yukio Hatoyama, then the prime minister, had angered Washington with his pledges to relocate a Marine Corps air base away from Okinawa.
His successor, Mr. Kan, has sought to smooth out ties with Washington and has emphasized that the alliance is the cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy.
"Insecurity about China's presence has served as a wake-up call on the importance of the alliance," said Fumiaki Kubo, a professor of public policy at the University of Tokyo.
BEIJING — For the last several years, one big theme has dominated talk of the future of Asia: As China rises, its neighbors are being inevitably drawn into its orbit, currying favor with the region's new hegemonic power.
The presumed loser, of course, is the United States, whose wealth and influence are being spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and whose economic troubles have eroded its standing in a more dynamic Asia.
But rising frictions between China and its neighbors in recent weeks over security issues have handed the United States an opportunity to reassert itself — one the Obama administration has been keen to take advantage of.
Washington is leaping into the middle of heated territorial disputes between China and Southeast Asian nations despite stern Chinese warnings that it mind its own business. The United States is carrying out naval exercises with South Korea in order to help Seoul rebuff threats from North Korea even though China is denouncing those exercises, saying that they intrude on areas where the Chinese military operates.
Meanwhile, China's increasingly tense standoff with Japan over a Chinese fishing trawler captured by Japanese ships in disputed waters is pushing Japan back under the American security umbrella.
The arena for these struggles is shifting this week to a summit meeting of world leaders at the United Nations. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, has refused to meet with his Japanese counterpart, Naoto Kan, and on Tuesday he threatened Japan with "further action" if it did not unconditionally release the fishing captain.
On Friday, President Obama is expected to meet with Southeast Asian leaders and promise that the United States is willing to help them peacefully settle South China Sea territorial disputes with China.
"The U.S. has been smart," said Carlyle A. Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy who studies security issues in Asia. "It has done well by coming to the assistance of countries in the region."
"All across the board, China is seeing the atmospherics change tremendously," he added. "The idea of the China threat, thanks to its own efforts, is being revived."
Asserting Chinese sovereignty over borderlands in contention — everywhere from Tibet to Taiwan to the South China Sea — has long been the top priority for Chinese nationalists, an obsession that overrides all other concerns. But this complicates China's attempts to present the country's rise as a boon for the whole region and creates wedges between China and its neighbors.
Nothing underscores that better than the escalating diplomatic conflict between China and Japan over the detention of the Chinese fishing captain, Zhan Qixiong, by the Japanese authorities, who say the captain rammed two Japanese vessels around the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. The islands are administered by Japan but claimed by both Japan and China.
The current dispute may strengthen the military alliance between the United States and Japan, as did an incident last April when a Chinese helicopter buzzed a Japanese destroyer. Such confrontations tend to remind Japanese officials, who have suggested that they need to refocus their foreign policy on China instead of America, that they rely on the United States to balance an unpredictable China, analysts say.
"Japan will have no choice but to further go into America's arms, to further beef up the U.S.-Japan alliance and its military power," said Huang Jing, a scholar of the Chinese military at the National University of Singapore.
In July, Southeast Asian nations, particularly Vietnam, applauded when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States was willing to help mediate a solution to disputes that those nations had with China over the South China Sea, which is rich in oil, natural gas and fish. China insists on dealing with Southeast Asian nations one on one, but Mrs. Clinton said the United States supported multilateral talks. Freedom of navigation in the sea is an American national interest, she said.
President Obama meets on Friday with leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean. The Associated Press reported that the participants would issue a joint statement opposing the "use or threat of force by any claimant attempting to enforce disputed claims in the South China Sea." The statement is clearly aimed at China, which has seized Vietnamese fishing vessels in recent years and detained their crews.
On Tuesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, criticized any attempt at mediation by the United States. "We firmly oppose any country having nothing to do with the South China Sea issue getting involved in the dispute," she said at a news conference in Beijing.
China has also been objecting to American plans to hold military exercises with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, which China claims as its exclusive military operations zone. The United States and South Korea want to send a stern message to North Korea over what Seoul says was the torpedoing last March of a South Korean warship by a North Korean submarine. China's belligerence serves only to reinforce South Korea's dependence on the American military.
American officials are increasingly concerned about the modernization of China's navy and its long-range abilities, as well as China's growing assertiveness in the surrounding waters. In March, a Chinese official told White House officials that the South China Sea was part of China's "core interest" of sovereignty, similar to Tibet and Taiwan, an American official said in an interview at the time. American officials also object to China's telling foreign oil companies not to work with Vietnam on developing oil fields in the South China Sea.
Some Chinese military leaders and analysts see an American effort to contain China. Feng Zhaokui, a Japan scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an article on Tuesday in The Global Times, a populist newspaper, that the United States was trying to "nurture a coalition against China."
In August, Rear Adm. Yang Yi wrote an editorial for The PLA Daily, published by the Chinese Army, in which he said that on one hand, Washington "wants China to play a role in regional security issues."
"On the other hand," he continued, "it is engaging in an increasingly tight encirclement of China and is constantly challenging China's core interests."
Asian countries suspicious of Chinese intentions see Washington as a natural ally. In April, the incident involving the Chinese helicopter and Japanese destroyer spooked many in Japan, making them feel vulnerable at a time when Yukio Hatoyama, then the prime minister, had angered Washington with his pledges to relocate a Marine Corps air base away from Okinawa.
His successor, Mr. Kan, has sought to smooth out ties with Washington and has emphasized that the alliance is the cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy.
"Insecurity about China's presence has served as a wake-up call on the importance of the alliance," said Fumiaki Kubo, a professor of public policy at the University of Tokyo.
SHASH2K2
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Amid tension, China blocks vital exports to Japan
Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has blocked exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.
Chinese customs officials are halting shipments to Japan of so-called rare earth elements, preventing them from being loading aboard ships at Chinese ports, industry officials said on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao personally called for Japan's release of the captain, who was detained after his vessel collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels about 40 minutes apart as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China. Mr. Wen threatened unspecified further actions if Japan did not comply.
A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman declined on Thursday morning to discuss the country's trade policy on rare earths, saying only that Mr Wen's comments remained the Chinese government's position. News agencies later reported that Chen Rongkai, another ministry spokesman, had denied that any embargo had been imposed.
Any publication of government regulations or other official pronouncements barring exports would allow Japan to file an immediate complaint with the World Trade Organization, alleging a violation of free trade rules. But an administrative halt to exports, by preventing the loading of rare earths on ships bound for Japan, is much harder to challenge at the W.T.O.
The United States, the European Union and Mexico brought W.T.O. complaints against China last November after it issued regulations limiting the export of yellow phosphorus and eight other industrial materials. American trade officials have been considering for months whether to challenge China's longstanding and increasingly tight quotas on rare earth exports as well.
China mines 93 percent of the world's rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world's supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.
Dudley Kingsnorth, the executive director of the Industrial Minerals Company of Australia, a rare earth consulting company, said that several executives in the rare earths industry had already expressed worries to him about the export ban. The executives have been told that the initial ban lasts through the end of the month, and that the Chinese government will reassess then whether to extend the ban if the fishing captain still has not been released, Mr. Kingsnorth said.
"By stopping the shipments, they're disrupting commercial contracts, which is regrettable and will only emphasize the need for geographic diversity of supply," he said. He added that in addition to telling companies to halt exports, the Chinese government had also instructed customs officials to stop any exports of rare earth minerals to Japan.
Industry officials said that mainland China's customs agency had notified companies that they were not allowed to ship to Japan any rare earth oxides, rare earth salts or pure rare earth metals, although these shipments are still allowed to go to Hong Kong, Singapore and other destinations. But no ban has been imposed on the export to Japan of semi-processed alloys that combine rare earths with other materials, the officials said. China has been trying to expand its alloy industry so as to create higher-paying jobs in mining areas, instead of exporting raw materials for initial processing.
Japan has been the main buyer of Chinese rare earths for many years, using them for a wide range of industrial purposes, like making glass for solar panels. They are also used in small steering control motors in conventional gasoline-powered cars as well as in motors that help propel hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius.
American companies now rely mostly on Japan for magnets and other components using rare earth elements, as the United States' manufacturing capacity in the industry became uncompetitive and mostly closed over the last two decades.
The Chinese halt to exports is likely to have immediate repercussions in Washington. The House Committee on Science and Technology is scheduled on Thursday morning to review a detailed bill to subsidize the revival of the American rare earths industry. The main American rare earths mine, in Mountain Pass, Calif., closed in 2002, but efforts are under way to reopen it.
The House Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing on Oct. 5 to review the American military dependence on Chinese rare earth elements.
The Defense Department has a separate review under way on whether the United States should develop its own sources of supply for rare earths, which are also used in equipment including rangefinders on the Army's tanks, sonar systems aboard Navy vessels and the control vanes on the Air Force's smart bombs.
The export halt is likely to prompt particular alarm in Japan, which has few natural resources and has long worried about its dependence on imports. The United States was the main supplier of oil to Japan in the 1930s, and the imposition of an American oil embargo on Japan in 1941, in an effort to curb Japanese military expansionism, has been cited by some historians as one of the reasons that Japan subsequently attacked Pearl Harbor.
Jeff Green, a Washington lobbyist for rare earth processors in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia, said that China and Japan were the only two sources for the initial, semiprocessed blocks of rare earth magnetic material. If Japan runs out of rare earths from China — and Japanese companies have been stockpiling in the last two years — then the United States will have to buy the semiprocessed blocks directly from China, he said.
"We are going to be 100 percent reliant on the Chinese to make the components for the defense supply chain," Mr. Green said.
Japanese companies are now setting up rare earth processing factories in northern Vietnam, partly to use small reserves of rare earth elements found there but also to process rare earth elements smuggled across the border from southern China. But the Chinese government has been rapidly tightening controls on the industry in the last four months to try to limit smuggling.
Rare earth elements are already in tight supply and prices are soaring after the Chinese government announced in July that it was cutting export quotas by 72 percent for the remainder of the year. A delegation of Japanese business leaders met with Chinese officials in Beijing on Sept. 7 to protest the sharp reduction in quotas.
The price of samarium, crucial to high-temperature military applications like missile guidance motors, has more than tripled since July, to $32 a pound, Mr. Green said.
Deng Xiaoping, the late leader of China, is widely reported to have said that while the Middle East has oil, China dominates rare earths. But while Arab states used restrictions on oil exports as a political weapon in 1956, 1967 and 1973, China has refrained until now from using its near monopoly on rare earth elements as a form of leverage on other governments.
China tried to position itself instead as a reliable supplier, partly to discourage other nations from digging their own rare earth mines.
Despite the name, rare earths are actually fairly common; they are expensive and seldom mined elsewhere because the processing equipment to separate them from the ore is expensive and because rare earths almost always occur naturally in deposits mixed with radioactive thorium and uranium. Processing runs the risk of radiation leaks, — a small leak was one reason the last American mine was unable to renew its operating license and closed in 2002 — and disposing of the radioactive thorium is difficult and costly.
A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be named, said that the Japanese government had not yet received any notice from China regarding the suspension. The official said, however, that the Japanese government has repeatedly asked China to not restrict its exports of rare earth elements, citing the severe consequences such a move would have on global production and trade.
Toyota had not yet received any information on an embargo and was unable to comment, said Masami Doi, a spokesman for Toyota in Tokyo.
Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has blocked exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.
Chinese customs officials are halting shipments to Japan of so-called rare earth elements, preventing them from being loading aboard ships at Chinese ports, industry officials said on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao personally called for Japan's release of the captain, who was detained after his vessel collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels about 40 minutes apart as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China. Mr. Wen threatened unspecified further actions if Japan did not comply.
A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman declined on Thursday morning to discuss the country's trade policy on rare earths, saying only that Mr Wen's comments remained the Chinese government's position. News agencies later reported that Chen Rongkai, another ministry spokesman, had denied that any embargo had been imposed.
Any publication of government regulations or other official pronouncements barring exports would allow Japan to file an immediate complaint with the World Trade Organization, alleging a violation of free trade rules. But an administrative halt to exports, by preventing the loading of rare earths on ships bound for Japan, is much harder to challenge at the W.T.O.
The United States, the European Union and Mexico brought W.T.O. complaints against China last November after it issued regulations limiting the export of yellow phosphorus and eight other industrial materials. American trade officials have been considering for months whether to challenge China's longstanding and increasingly tight quotas on rare earth exports as well.
China mines 93 percent of the world's rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world's supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.
Dudley Kingsnorth, the executive director of the Industrial Minerals Company of Australia, a rare earth consulting company, said that several executives in the rare earths industry had already expressed worries to him about the export ban. The executives have been told that the initial ban lasts through the end of the month, and that the Chinese government will reassess then whether to extend the ban if the fishing captain still has not been released, Mr. Kingsnorth said.
"By stopping the shipments, they're disrupting commercial contracts, which is regrettable and will only emphasize the need for geographic diversity of supply," he said. He added that in addition to telling companies to halt exports, the Chinese government had also instructed customs officials to stop any exports of rare earth minerals to Japan.
Industry officials said that mainland China's customs agency had notified companies that they were not allowed to ship to Japan any rare earth oxides, rare earth salts or pure rare earth metals, although these shipments are still allowed to go to Hong Kong, Singapore and other destinations. But no ban has been imposed on the export to Japan of semi-processed alloys that combine rare earths with other materials, the officials said. China has been trying to expand its alloy industry so as to create higher-paying jobs in mining areas, instead of exporting raw materials for initial processing.
Japan has been the main buyer of Chinese rare earths for many years, using them for a wide range of industrial purposes, like making glass for solar panels. They are also used in small steering control motors in conventional gasoline-powered cars as well as in motors that help propel hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius.
American companies now rely mostly on Japan for magnets and other components using rare earth elements, as the United States' manufacturing capacity in the industry became uncompetitive and mostly closed over the last two decades.
The Chinese halt to exports is likely to have immediate repercussions in Washington. The House Committee on Science and Technology is scheduled on Thursday morning to review a detailed bill to subsidize the revival of the American rare earths industry. The main American rare earths mine, in Mountain Pass, Calif., closed in 2002, but efforts are under way to reopen it.
The House Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing on Oct. 5 to review the American military dependence on Chinese rare earth elements.
The Defense Department has a separate review under way on whether the United States should develop its own sources of supply for rare earths, which are also used in equipment including rangefinders on the Army's tanks, sonar systems aboard Navy vessels and the control vanes on the Air Force's smart bombs.
The export halt is likely to prompt particular alarm in Japan, which has few natural resources and has long worried about its dependence on imports. The United States was the main supplier of oil to Japan in the 1930s, and the imposition of an American oil embargo on Japan in 1941, in an effort to curb Japanese military expansionism, has been cited by some historians as one of the reasons that Japan subsequently attacked Pearl Harbor.
Jeff Green, a Washington lobbyist for rare earth processors in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia, said that China and Japan were the only two sources for the initial, semiprocessed blocks of rare earth magnetic material. If Japan runs out of rare earths from China — and Japanese companies have been stockpiling in the last two years — then the United States will have to buy the semiprocessed blocks directly from China, he said.
"We are going to be 100 percent reliant on the Chinese to make the components for the defense supply chain," Mr. Green said.
Japanese companies are now setting up rare earth processing factories in northern Vietnam, partly to use small reserves of rare earth elements found there but also to process rare earth elements smuggled across the border from southern China. But the Chinese government has been rapidly tightening controls on the industry in the last four months to try to limit smuggling.
Rare earth elements are already in tight supply and prices are soaring after the Chinese government announced in July that it was cutting export quotas by 72 percent for the remainder of the year. A delegation of Japanese business leaders met with Chinese officials in Beijing on Sept. 7 to protest the sharp reduction in quotas.
The price of samarium, crucial to high-temperature military applications like missile guidance motors, has more than tripled since July, to $32 a pound, Mr. Green said.
Deng Xiaoping, the late leader of China, is widely reported to have said that while the Middle East has oil, China dominates rare earths. But while Arab states used restrictions on oil exports as a political weapon in 1956, 1967 and 1973, China has refrained until now from using its near monopoly on rare earth elements as a form of leverage on other governments.
China tried to position itself instead as a reliable supplier, partly to discourage other nations from digging their own rare earth mines.
Despite the name, rare earths are actually fairly common; they are expensive and seldom mined elsewhere because the processing equipment to separate them from the ore is expensive and because rare earths almost always occur naturally in deposits mixed with radioactive thorium and uranium. Processing runs the risk of radiation leaks, — a small leak was one reason the last American mine was unable to renew its operating license and closed in 2002 — and disposing of the radioactive thorium is difficult and costly.
A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be named, said that the Japanese government had not yet received any notice from China regarding the suspension. The official said, however, that the Japanese government has repeatedly asked China to not restrict its exports of rare earth elements, citing the severe consequences such a move would have on global production and trade.
Toyota had not yet received any information on an embargo and was unable to comment, said Masami Doi, a spokesman for Toyota in Tokyo.
amoy
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Foreign policy is an extention of internal affairs. It caters to the general anti-Jap sentiments especially when the trawler captain is being detained by Japan off Diaoyu Islands, with a 'domestic' law being applied.
It's a fallacy to claim such a move pushes Japan to America's arms. Japan is anyway in his arms.
In a game, the weaker side sometimes has to behave more assertively for deterrence.
It's a fallacy to claim such a move pushes Japan to America's arms. Japan is anyway in his arms.
In a game, the weaker side sometimes has to behave more assertively for deterrence.
SHASH2K2
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Japan to free Chinese boat captain amid row
Japan is to release a Chinese fishing boat captain whose arrest two weeks ago led to the worst row with Beijing in years, Japanese media report.
The Japanese authorities had accused Zhan Qixiong of deliberately ramming two patrol vessels near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
China said his detention was "illegal and invalid".
The move came after four Japanese men were detained in China on suspicion of illegally filming in a military area.
A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said its embassy in Beijing had received confirmation that the four were being held, but he said he did not want to speculate whether it was linked to Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain.
Officials said the four men were employees of a Japanese construction company who were in China to bid for a project to dispose of chemical weapons from World War II.
Escalating tensions
At a news conference, prosecutors in Naha, Okinawa, said Mr Zhan was just a fishing boat captain and had no criminal record in Japan.
They said they did not perceive any premeditated intent to damage the patrol boats and therefore had decided that further investigation while keeping the captain in custody would not be appropriate, considering the impact on relations with Japan.
It was unclear whether Mr Zhan would be charged with anything, or when he would be released.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that the government would send a charter plane to bring Mr Zhan home, reiterating that "any form of so-called legal procedures taken by Japan against the Chinese boat captain are illegal and invalid", the AFP news agency reported.
Tensions had escalated since Japan detained the Chinese captain.
Beijing cut off ministerial level contacts between the two countries and thousands of Chinese tourists pulled out of trips to Japan. Concerts by a Japan's top boy band SMAP due to take place in Shanghai were cancelled by the Chinese organisers.
Earlier this week Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that Japan bore full responsibility for the situation and demanded the immediate release of the captain.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the two sides to settle the issue before it had a long-term impact on the region.
The Japanese coastguard arrested Zhan Qixiong on 8 September after his trawler collided with two of their patrol boats in an area claimed by both countries, near uninhabited islands which may have oil and gas deposits
Japanese prosecutors had until next Wednesday to decide whether or not to charge the man.
Japan is to release a Chinese fishing boat captain whose arrest two weeks ago led to the worst row with Beijing in years, Japanese media report.
The Japanese authorities had accused Zhan Qixiong of deliberately ramming two patrol vessels near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
China said his detention was "illegal and invalid".
The move came after four Japanese men were detained in China on suspicion of illegally filming in a military area.
A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said its embassy in Beijing had received confirmation that the four were being held, but he said he did not want to speculate whether it was linked to Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain.
Officials said the four men were employees of a Japanese construction company who were in China to bid for a project to dispose of chemical weapons from World War II.
Escalating tensions
At a news conference, prosecutors in Naha, Okinawa, said Mr Zhan was just a fishing boat captain and had no criminal record in Japan.
They said they did not perceive any premeditated intent to damage the patrol boats and therefore had decided that further investigation while keeping the captain in custody would not be appropriate, considering the impact on relations with Japan.
It was unclear whether Mr Zhan would be charged with anything, or when he would be released.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that the government would send a charter plane to bring Mr Zhan home, reiterating that "any form of so-called legal procedures taken by Japan against the Chinese boat captain are illegal and invalid", the AFP news agency reported.
Tensions had escalated since Japan detained the Chinese captain.
Beijing cut off ministerial level contacts between the two countries and thousands of Chinese tourists pulled out of trips to Japan. Concerts by a Japan's top boy band SMAP due to take place in Shanghai were cancelled by the Chinese organisers.
Earlier this week Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that Japan bore full responsibility for the situation and demanded the immediate release of the captain.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the two sides to settle the issue before it had a long-term impact on the region.
The Japanese coastguard arrested Zhan Qixiong on 8 September after his trawler collided with two of their patrol boats in an area claimed by both countries, near uninhabited islands which may have oil and gas deposits
Japanese prosecutors had until next Wednesday to decide whether or not to charge the man.
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Japan rejects China's demand for apology in boat row
Read more: Japan rejects China's demand for apology in boat row - The Times of India Japan rejects China's demand for apology in boat row - The Times of India
BEIJING: Japan strongly rejected a Chinese demand on Saturday that it apologize for detaining a Chinese fishing boat captain whose arrest after a collision near disputed islands plunged relations between the two Asian powers to their lowest level in years.
Japanese authorities released the captain, Zhan Qixiong, early Saturday and he was flown home by chartered plane to Fuzhou in China's southeastern Fujian province.
State broadcaster China Central Television showed Zhan, 41, smiling and holding his fingers in a victory sign as he walked off the plane. He was greeted by family members bearing flowers and a small group of government officials.
But hopes that his release would defuse mounting tensions were dashed when China promptly demanded an apology and compensation from Japan.
"It is unlawful and invalid for Japan to detain, investigate or take any form of judicial measures against the Chinese fishermen and trawler," China's foreign ministry said in a statement. "The Japanese side must make an apology and compensation for this incident."
Japan's foreign ministry said the demands were groundless and "absolutely cannot be accepted."
The captain's detention and investigation were "an appropriate and calm response according to our nation's laws," it said in a statement.
The diplomatic back-and-forth Saturday demonstrated that nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the incident show few signs of dissipating. Tensions have already affected business ties between the nations' intertwined economies - the world's second- and third-largest.
Zhan was arrested on Sept. 8 after his boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of islands called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. The islands, about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of Taiwan, are controlled by Japan but are also claimed by Taiwan and China.
Japanese prosecutors detained and questioned the captain while they decided whether to press charges, though his 14-member crew and boat were returned to China.
Zhan's release came after intense pressure from Beijing, which suspended ministerial-level contacts with Tokyo and postponed talks on developing disputed undersea gas fields. This past week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sternly threatened further action against Japan if it did not immediately release the captain.
"I firmly support the Chinese government's stance," Zhan said Saturday after returning to China. " Diaoyu islands belong to China. It's legal that I go there to fish but it's illegal that they detained me. I did not violate the law."
The decision by Japanese prosecutors to let him go has prompted criticism within Japan. An editorial Saturday in the nationally circulated Yomiuri newspaper blasted the captain's release as "a political decision that put the mending of relations as a priority."
"Needless to say, the Senkaku islands are part of Japan's territory. The government must continue to assert this view both domestically and abroad," it said.
The tensions have spilled over into other issues. On Thursday, Beijing said it was investigating four Japanese suspected of entering a military zone without authorization and illegally filming military facilities. The four employees of Fujita Corp., a Japanese construction company, were working to prepare a bid for a project to dispose chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese military during World War II, the company said.
Meanwhile, Japanese trading company officials said that starting Tuesday, China had halted exports to Japan of rare earth elements, which are essential for making superconductors, computers, hybrid electric cars and other high-tech products. Japan imports 50 percent of China's rare earth shipments.
China's trade ministry denied that Beijing had tightened curbs on exports of rare earths to Japan, but Japan's trade minister, Akihiro Ohata, said he had "information" that China's exports to some Japanese trading houses had been stopped.
The territorial dispute over the islands is one of many that has strained ties between Tokyo and Beijing. Japan annexed the island chain in 1895, saying no nation exercised a formal claim over them. The islands, lying roughly midway between Okinawa and Taiwan, were administered by the United States after World War II until they were returned to Tokyo in 1972.
Washington has signaled its intention to protect its interests in those waters and to keep them open for commerce, drawing China's irritation by urging it to resolve the disputes.
The US praised Japan's decision to release the captain. State department spokesman PJ Crowley said Friday that the US hopes the decision will ease tensions between the two longtime Asian rivals.
However, Japanese authorities said they wouldn't officially close the case - leaving room for some ambiguity that would allow both countries to save face.
Read more: Japan rejects China's demand for apology in boat row - The Times of India Japan rejects China's demand for apology in boat row - The Times of India
BEIJING: Japan strongly rejected a Chinese demand on Saturday that it apologize for detaining a Chinese fishing boat captain whose arrest after a collision near disputed islands plunged relations between the two Asian powers to their lowest level in years.
Japanese authorities released the captain, Zhan Qixiong, early Saturday and he was flown home by chartered plane to Fuzhou in China's southeastern Fujian province.
State broadcaster China Central Television showed Zhan, 41, smiling and holding his fingers in a victory sign as he walked off the plane. He was greeted by family members bearing flowers and a small group of government officials.
But hopes that his release would defuse mounting tensions were dashed when China promptly demanded an apology and compensation from Japan.
"It is unlawful and invalid for Japan to detain, investigate or take any form of judicial measures against the Chinese fishermen and trawler," China's foreign ministry said in a statement. "The Japanese side must make an apology and compensation for this incident."
Japan's foreign ministry said the demands were groundless and "absolutely cannot be accepted."
The captain's detention and investigation were "an appropriate and calm response according to our nation's laws," it said in a statement.
The diplomatic back-and-forth Saturday demonstrated that nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the incident show few signs of dissipating. Tensions have already affected business ties between the nations' intertwined economies - the world's second- and third-largest.
Zhan was arrested on Sept. 8 after his boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of islands called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. The islands, about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of Taiwan, are controlled by Japan but are also claimed by Taiwan and China.
Japanese prosecutors detained and questioned the captain while they decided whether to press charges, though his 14-member crew and boat were returned to China.
Zhan's release came after intense pressure from Beijing, which suspended ministerial-level contacts with Tokyo and postponed talks on developing disputed undersea gas fields. This past week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sternly threatened further action against Japan if it did not immediately release the captain.
"I firmly support the Chinese government's stance," Zhan said Saturday after returning to China. " Diaoyu islands belong to China. It's legal that I go there to fish but it's illegal that they detained me. I did not violate the law."
The decision by Japanese prosecutors to let him go has prompted criticism within Japan. An editorial Saturday in the nationally circulated Yomiuri newspaper blasted the captain's release as "a political decision that put the mending of relations as a priority."
"Needless to say, the Senkaku islands are part of Japan's territory. The government must continue to assert this view both domestically and abroad," it said.
The tensions have spilled over into other issues. On Thursday, Beijing said it was investigating four Japanese suspected of entering a military zone without authorization and illegally filming military facilities. The four employees of Fujita Corp., a Japanese construction company, were working to prepare a bid for a project to dispose chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese military during World War II, the company said.
Meanwhile, Japanese trading company officials said that starting Tuesday, China had halted exports to Japan of rare earth elements, which are essential for making superconductors, computers, hybrid electric cars and other high-tech products. Japan imports 50 percent of China's rare earth shipments.
China's trade ministry denied that Beijing had tightened curbs on exports of rare earths to Japan, but Japan's trade minister, Akihiro Ohata, said he had "information" that China's exports to some Japanese trading houses had been stopped.
The territorial dispute over the islands is one of many that has strained ties between Tokyo and Beijing. Japan annexed the island chain in 1895, saying no nation exercised a formal claim over them. The islands, lying roughly midway between Okinawa and Taiwan, were administered by the United States after World War II until they were returned to Tokyo in 1972.
Washington has signaled its intention to protect its interests in those waters and to keep them open for commerce, drawing China's irritation by urging it to resolve the disputes.
The US praised Japan's decision to release the captain. State department spokesman PJ Crowley said Friday that the US hopes the decision will ease tensions between the two longtime Asian rivals.
However, Japanese authorities said they wouldn't officially close the case - leaving room for some ambiguity that would allow both countries to save face.
Japan Retreats With Release of Chinese Boat Captain
TOKYO — A diplomatic showdown between Japan and China that began two weeks ago with the arrest of the captain of a Chinese trawler near disputed islands ended Friday when Tokyo accepted Beijing's demands for his immediate release, a concession that appeared to mark a humiliating retreat in a Pacific test of wills.Japan freed the captain, Zhan Qixiong, 41, who left Saturday on a chartered flight sent by the Chinese government to take him home. Mr. Zhan had been held by the Japanese authorities since his boat collided with Japanese patrol vessels on Sept. 7 near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, and Japan had insisted that he would be prosecuted.
His release handed a significant victory to Chinese leaders, who have ratcheted up the pressure on Japan with verbal threats and economic sanctions.
"It certainly appears that Japan gave in," said Hiroshi Nakanishi, a professor of international relations at Kyoto University. "This is going to raise questions about why Japan pushed the issue in the first place, if it couldn't follow through with meeting China's challenges."
The climb down was the latest indicator of the shifting balance of power in Asia. China this year surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy and had already become Japan's biggest export market. Japan, mired in extended political uncertainty and economic malaise, has had a succession of weak prime ministers who have struggled to assert its interests in a region focused mainly on a resurgent China.
China on Saturday restated its claims to the disputed islands and in a statement demanded an apology and compensation. "Such an act seriously infringed upon China's territorial sovereignty and violated the human rights of Chinese citizens," the statement said.
At the outset, Japan had made an uncharacteristic display of political backbone by detaining the captain, when in the past it had simply chased away Chinese vessels that approached too close to the islands, which are claimed by both countries but administered by Japan. Apparently angered by a rising number of incursions by Chinese fishing boats in recent years, Tokyo initially appeared determined to demonstrate to Beijing its control of the islands, analysts and diplomats said.
Instead, the move unleashed a furious diplomatic assault from China. Beijing cut off ministerial-level talks on issues like joint energy development, and curtailed visits to Japan by Chinese tourists. The fact that the detention took place on Sept. 8, the anniversary of Japan's 1931 invasion of northeast China, spurred scattered street protests and calls by nationalistic Chinese bloggers to take a firm stand against Tokyo.
In recent days, China stepped up its intimidation. Chinese customs officials appeared to block crucial exports to Japan of rare earths, which are metals vital to Japan's auto and electronics industries. Then on Thursday, four Japanese construction company employees were detained in the Chinese province of Hebei.
In the end, diplomats and analysts said Japan was forced to recognize that taking the next step of charging the captain and putting him on trial would result in a serious deterioration of ties with China, Japan's biggest trading partner.
"At this point, Japan had only one choice," said a Western diplomat in Beijing, who spoke on the usual diplomatic condition of anonymity. "It had to charge the captain, or it would have to climb down."
It chose the latter. On Friday, prosecutors on the island of Ishigaki, where the captain was held, cited diplomatic considerations in their decision to let him go, and suspended their investigation into charges of obstructing officials on duty.
"Considering the effect on the people of our nation and on China-Japan relations, we decided that it was not appropriate to continue the investigation," the prosecutors said in a statement.
Until Japan's sudden reversal on Friday, the tussle had grown to dominate both nations' diplomatic agendas, including during the United Nations development summit meeting this week in New York.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China had refused to meet on the sidelines of the meeting with Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, and instead threatened additional actions if Japan did not release the captain.The Japanese used the summit meeting to seek American support for its position. They seemed to get it when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Japan's new foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, that America's treaty obligations to defend Japan from foreign attack would include any moves against the islands where the Chinese captain had been arrested.The islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese or Diaoyu in Chinese, are also claimed by Taiwan.
The fact that Japan seemed to back down after escalating the situation brought an outpouring of criticism of Mr. Kan, who was re-elected prime minister just two weeks ago. On Friday, members of his own governing Democratic Party joined opposition lawmakers in condemning the decision to release the captain.
"I'm flabbergasted that this was resolved with such a clear diplomatic defeat for Japan," said Yoshimi Watanabe, leader of the opposition Your Party.
The setback appears likely to raise new concerns about the leadership of the Democrats, who took power in a landslide election victory last year with promises to improve ties within Asia and reduce Japan's dependence on the United States.
However, the standoff underscored how sentiment in Japan had hardened against China, even in recent months. Ever more frequent movements by Chinese warships into Japanese waters have stirred fears here that fast-growing China will become more aggressive in pushing its territorial claims.
However, there were also growing calls in Japan for a quick resolution to the standoff, particularly by the business community, which has become increasingly reliant on China for trade and investment. On Friday, the president of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Atsushi Saito, told reporters he welcomed the release.
"As a Japanese, I have mixed feelings about appearing so weak-kneed," Mr. Saito said, "but realistically speaking, we had to put this problem behind us."
In China, the captain's release appeared to be a victory for the leadership, and particularly the prime minister, Mr. Wen. The Communist Party is keen to show itself as defending China's territorial claims, which enjoy strong emotional support from the Chinese people. China also views itself as geopolitically hemmed in by Japan and other cold war-era American allies as it tries to take its place as a regional power.
Chinese analysts agreed that Japan had appeared to fold, but said Tokyo had no choice if it wanted to avoid a continued escalation with China.
"This was a move that Japan had to make or China would have taken further steps," said Wang Xiangsui, a foreign policy analyst at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "Now the two sides can discuss this more calmly."
Mr. Zhan, the trawler captain, arrived in the Chinese coastal city of Fuzhou at 4 a.m. local time, according to the official Xinhua news agency. He was met at the airport by senior officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry, which had chartered a plane to pick him up after his release in Japan.
When the door of the plane opened, Mr. Zhan was carrying flowers and immediately was greeted with hugs by relatives waiting for him, Xinhua reported.
"Being able to return safely this time, I thank the party and government for their care," Mr. Zhan said. "I also thank the Chinese people for their concern."
WHAT DOES CHINA'S DISPUTE WITH JAPAN TELL US ABOUT RULE OF LAW?
Posted by Evan Osnos
China is unveiling a wide spectrum of plumage in its dispute with Japan over a group of islands in the Pacific. The latest: telling travel agencies to stop offering tours of Japan, and detaining four Japanese nationals who are suspected, according to the state-run press, of illegally making videos of military targets in China. But one of the most interesting puzzles in all of this is less overt: Who is piloting the boat?
That is, in political terms, who is running China's handling of the crisis? The Chinese military has been notably out front on this, which is a break from previous cases, and John Pomfret, writing in the Washington Post today, raises the vital point that a "new generation of officials in the military, key government ministries and state-owned companies" has left diplomats in Washington and around the world straining at "how difficult it is to contend with the explosion of special interests shaping China's worldview."
The rise of special interests has become the signature issue of Chinese politics in 2010. A country once known for its sheer lack of special interests—Mao didn't have much interest in lobbyists—has become defined by the ways that powerful companies and individuals can step across the formal policymaking structure to shape the country in ways that are suited to their interests, if not necessarily the country's. That has fuelled a growing appeal inside government and academia for bolder reforms to reduce the power of personal politics. It is not just about foreign affairs. Last week, I spent time with a well-regarded Chinese scholar at Peking University who explained, in vivid terms, why he believes that special interests such as state-owned companies are "hijacking the government."
"I have a classmate from college who is now a billionaire," he said, "and another classmate working in the government. And the billionaire classmate at one time wanted to get my government-official classmate to be a vice mayor in some city because my billionaire classmate had a project in that city. And this is actually very common in China. It's actually not illegal because my billionaire classmate knows the Party secretary in that city very well. So he can persuade the Party secretary to do that. As outsiders, you don't know this. You think it's the party secretary's decision. But my billionaire classmate is behind this."
In other words, if you want to prevent the next crisis with Japan from becoming something far larger and more dangerous, it will mean figuring out how to keep China's power-players from being more powerful than their own system.
Read more Letter from China: What Does China’s Dispute with Japan Tell Us About Rule of Law? : The New Yorker
SHASH2K2
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Japan Asks China to Pay for Damages
TOKYO — Chinese-Japanese tensions over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain re-escalated on Monday when Japan said it would ask China to pay for repairs to two coast guard ships damaged by the trawler.
The Japanese request was effectively a retort to China's demand that Japan apologize and offer compensation for the episode, even after Japan had freed the captain last Friday in what was widely seen as a capitulation to placate an increasingly assertive China.
On Sunday, Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, called China's latest demands "unthinkable," a sign of his sensitivity to criticism that Japan had shown timidity to Chinese bullying.
"Naturally, we will be asking for the boats to be returned to their original condition," the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshito Sengoku, told a news conference here on Monday.
The Japanese release of the captain seemed aimed at defusing a heated standoff in which China had imposed economic sanctions and even detained four Japanese.
But the Japanese were clearly surprised when China then said that Tokyo must offer an apology and unspecified compensation over the arrest, which took place almost three weeks ago and aroused deep anger in China.
The demands have forced Mr. Kan to decide once again whether Tokyo will stand up to Beijing, which in recent years has appeared to be testing Japan's resolve to back its territorial claims in the East China Sea.
In the days leading up to the captain's release, the Chinese curtailed tourism to Japan, suspended many political and cultural ties, and took unannounced steps to restrict shipments to Japan of rare-earth minerals, which are important components for a range of industrial products.
But the move that Japan found most alarming was the detention in the northern city of Shijiazhuang of the four Japanese citizens, accused of photographing military sites.
The dispute illustrated the difficulty of overcoming nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the trawler episode, which is affecting the deeply intertwined ties between the two neighbors, the world's second- and third-largest economies, after that of the United States. It also raised concern across Asia about China's willingness to use its growing economic clout for political gains.
Japanese leaders had sought to minimize the episode, saying that the Chinese captain's release was a decision made by local prosecutors. Those assertions were met with broad skepticism, with many here holding the view that Japan capitulated to aggressive Chinese pressure.
This has led to growing criticism in Japan that Mr. Kan's government showed weakness. "It looks like Japan caved in," said Sadakazu Tanigaki, the head of the largest opposition party, the Liberal Democrats. "That sends the wrong signal to China."
TOKYO — Chinese-Japanese tensions over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain re-escalated on Monday when Japan said it would ask China to pay for repairs to two coast guard ships damaged by the trawler.
The Japanese request was effectively a retort to China's demand that Japan apologize and offer compensation for the episode, even after Japan had freed the captain last Friday in what was widely seen as a capitulation to placate an increasingly assertive China.
On Sunday, Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, called China's latest demands "unthinkable," a sign of his sensitivity to criticism that Japan had shown timidity to Chinese bullying.
"Naturally, we will be asking for the boats to be returned to their original condition," the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshito Sengoku, told a news conference here on Monday.
The Japanese release of the captain seemed aimed at defusing a heated standoff in which China had imposed economic sanctions and even detained four Japanese.
But the Japanese were clearly surprised when China then said that Tokyo must offer an apology and unspecified compensation over the arrest, which took place almost three weeks ago and aroused deep anger in China.
The demands have forced Mr. Kan to decide once again whether Tokyo will stand up to Beijing, which in recent years has appeared to be testing Japan's resolve to back its territorial claims in the East China Sea.
In the days leading up to the captain's release, the Chinese curtailed tourism to Japan, suspended many political and cultural ties, and took unannounced steps to restrict shipments to Japan of rare-earth minerals, which are important components for a range of industrial products.
But the move that Japan found most alarming was the detention in the northern city of Shijiazhuang of the four Japanese citizens, accused of photographing military sites.
The dispute illustrated the difficulty of overcoming nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the trawler episode, which is affecting the deeply intertwined ties between the two neighbors, the world's second- and third-largest economies, after that of the United States. It also raised concern across Asia about China's willingness to use its growing economic clout for political gains.
Japanese leaders had sought to minimize the episode, saying that the Chinese captain's release was a decision made by local prosecutors. Those assertions were met with broad skepticism, with many here holding the view that Japan capitulated to aggressive Chinese pressure.
This has led to growing criticism in Japan that Mr. Kan's government showed weakness. "It looks like Japan caved in," said Sadakazu Tanigaki, the head of the largest opposition party, the Liberal Democrats. "That sends the wrong signal to China."
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Thumb up to Captain Zhan, my fellow provincial. A trawler damaged two coast guard ships? Only at a glimpse of pictures will u get Jap's humour.
On this forum I saw a few posters labelling GoI as spineless. It's true of GoC too. At last GoC gets outspoken and cares about citizens' safety and interest and makes China more and more like a 'normal' country with awakening nationalism which died down during 'reform and opening up' after Mao's era.
Also it's a response to the US' recent activities in E. Asia (joint excercises with JP and SK on Yellow Sea). One who plays Go - E.Asian's favourite chess game can easily understand the tactics.
Anyway Jap has an island dispute with SK too, and S. Suril Islands being held by Russia.
On this forum I saw a few posters labelling GoI as spineless. It's true of GoC too. At last GoC gets outspoken and cares about citizens' safety and interest and makes China more and more like a 'normal' country with awakening nationalism which died down during 'reform and opening up' after Mao's era.
Also it's a response to the US' recent activities in E. Asia (joint excercises with JP and SK on Yellow Sea). One who plays Go - E.Asian's favourite chess game can easily understand the tactics.
Anyway Jap has an island dispute with SK too, and S. Suril Islands being held by Russia.
Last edited:
Siding with Japan keeps in mind the big picture
By Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎
Tuesday, Sep 28, 2010, Page 8
While the row between Japan and China over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣éšå°) has caught international attention, a democratic Taiwan needs to keep the bigger picture in mind on this issue.
It began as a small incident: During an incursion in the waters surrounding the Diaoyutais, a Chinese trawler bumped into two Japanese Coast Guard vessels. The Japanese arrested the Chinese captain and crew, allowed the crew to go after a couple of days, but held the captain for further legal procedures.
However, the matter quickly evolved into a major political dispute when China ratcheted up the tension. It summoned the Japanese ambassador in Beijing early in the morning for a dressing down, suspended high-level exchanges between the two countries, while officials, including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), threatened "further action" by making threats about what would happen if the captain was not released.
In this tense situation it is extremely important that Taiwan makes the right decisions and doesn't let its actions aggravate the situation even further. Against this background it was not wise to allow a fishing boat from Taiwan with several activists on board to set sail to the Diaoyutais in the middle of this month. The media in Taiwan reported that the activists, including several from Hong Kong, went there to assert "Chinese" sovereignty over the islands.
Taiwan needs to side with the forces of democracy.
It should be clear to even a casual observer that China is pushing its model of "strong economic growth combined with strict political control" — some refer to this as the "Beijing consensus" — on the world.
Taiwan, on the other hand, is still clearly a member of the democratic camp: Countries which value democracy and understand that true and equitable economic growth can only occur through adherence to the basic principles of democracy.
Looking toward the future, Taiwan needs to decide in a democratic way what the people of the island want for their future: Drift closer to China, which will inevitable mean a loss of democracy and human rights, or remain a free and open democracy.
If it wants the latter, it needs to align itself with other nations that adhere to the same value system. That means Japan: It is the closest democracy and if Taiwan's existence is ever threatened by China, Japan and other allies in the region would no doubt align themselves with the US and come to Taiwan's defense.
This means that Taiwan needs to maintain good relations with Japan and not let the fracas over a few goat-inhabited rocks damage ties with a friend whose support Taiwan will surely need in the future.
The importance of Japan as a partner was also emphasized recently by US Vice President Joe Biden.
At a function in Washington he stated: "I don't know how it works without our partner in that part of the world."
China's upping the ante in the territorial claim over the islands and the arrest of the fishing boat captain shows that it still has to learn how to be a responsible stakeholder in the world. If it behaves in this way over such relatively "small" matters, one wonders if it will play by fair rules when a bigger conflict arises, say over the future of Taiwan? Will it respect the wishes of the people of Taiwan or run roughshod over them, like they did in Tibet and East Turkestan?
Taiwan will therefore need to keep the bigger picture of its future as a free and democratic nation in mind and let its decisions be guided by longer-term strategies. True statesmen will have the wisdom to make the right decisions.
Nat Bellocchi is a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan and a special adviser to the Liberty Times Group. The views expressed in this article are his own.
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China Softens Its Tone in Dispute With Japan
BEIJING — After weeks of escalating diplomatic tension over Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing captain, China on Tuesday called on Tokyo to cooperate in resolving the messy dispute involving territorial sovereignty, compensation for damaged boats and such intangibles as wounded national pride.
"China highly values China-Japan relations," Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said during a regular news conference. "But safeguarding bilateral relations requires that the two sides meet halfway and requires Japan to take candid and practical actions."
The comments were gentle in comparison with previous admonishments and threats by Chinese officials, including a warning of "full consequences" by the normally taciturn premier, Wen Jiabao, should Japan fail to acquiesce to its demands.
The latest comments came hours after the Japanese foreign minister insisted that there was nothing to discuss when it comes to sovereignty over the string of islands in the East China Sea that both sides claim.
"No territorial issue exists," the foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, told Parliament, the Kyodo News Agency reported on Tuesday.
The Chinese side has made its displeasure known beyond its verbal sparring by halting top-level political contacts, canceling tour groups and stopping the shipment of minerals crucial to Japanese automakers and other manufacturers, although the Chinese commerce minister has denied the existence of an export ban.
The imbroglio has been raging since Sept. 8, when Japanese sailors arrested the captain of a Chinese trawler during a confrontation that may or may not have involved the captain intentionally ramming his ship into two Japanese patrol vessels. Known as the Diaoyu to the Chinese and Senkaku to the Japanese, the uninhabited islets northeast of Taiwan are claimed by both countries and Taiwan but are administered by Japan.
After angry protests by the Chinese government — and a modest rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing — prosecutors released the captain on Friday, a move that was widely interpreted as a diplomatic victory for China and an affirmation of its growing economic might.
But the release, apparently, was not enough to sooth China's fury. Hours later, Beijing demanded an apology and compensation for the fisherman's damaged ship as the state-run media celebrated the return of the captain, Zhan Qixiong. (After savoring an official celebration with fireworks and pounding drums, Mr. Zhan, 41, promptly vowed to return to the disputed waters.)
Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan, feeling the heat for his perceived bow to a longtime rival, has since rejected Chinese demands for money and an apology. For good measure, the Japanese chief cabinet secretary is asking the other side to pay for repairs to the damaged coast guard vessels.
"Naturally, we will be asking for the boats to be returned to their original condition," he said earlier in the week.
It has not helped the diplomatic efforts that China continues to hold four Japanese citizens who were arrested last Friday after being accused of videotaping at a military installation not far from Beijing. Japan's economics minister on Tuesday warned that the ban on rare-earth exports could pose a significant threat to the Japanese economy.
"We need to restore Japan-China ties, especially economic exchanges, as soon as possible," Banri Kaieda, the minister of economic and fiscal policy, told a news conference, The Associated Press reported.
Wei Zhijiang, an expert on Sino-Japan relations at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said that while the Foreign Ministry's latest comments could be viewed as an olive branch, he doubts the Chinese side will be able to say much more given how emotionally freighted the issue in China — where anti-Japanese sentiment is always just beneath the surface — and the approach of the holiday on Friday commemorating the founding of the People's Republic of China.
"From a domestic perspective, the government has an obligation to show its citizens that it is safeguarding the country's territorial integrity," Mr. Wei said. "It's a basic principle for any government that wants to be viewed by its people as competent."
BEIJING — After weeks of escalating diplomatic tension over Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing captain, China on Tuesday called on Tokyo to cooperate in resolving the messy dispute involving territorial sovereignty, compensation for damaged boats and such intangibles as wounded national pride.
"China highly values China-Japan relations," Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said during a regular news conference. "But safeguarding bilateral relations requires that the two sides meet halfway and requires Japan to take candid and practical actions."
The comments were gentle in comparison with previous admonishments and threats by Chinese officials, including a warning of "full consequences" by the normally taciturn premier, Wen Jiabao, should Japan fail to acquiesce to its demands.
The latest comments came hours after the Japanese foreign minister insisted that there was nothing to discuss when it comes to sovereignty over the string of islands in the East China Sea that both sides claim.
"No territorial issue exists," the foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, told Parliament, the Kyodo News Agency reported on Tuesday.
The Chinese side has made its displeasure known beyond its verbal sparring by halting top-level political contacts, canceling tour groups and stopping the shipment of minerals crucial to Japanese automakers and other manufacturers, although the Chinese commerce minister has denied the existence of an export ban.
The imbroglio has been raging since Sept. 8, when Japanese sailors arrested the captain of a Chinese trawler during a confrontation that may or may not have involved the captain intentionally ramming his ship into two Japanese patrol vessels. Known as the Diaoyu to the Chinese and Senkaku to the Japanese, the uninhabited islets northeast of Taiwan are claimed by both countries and Taiwan but are administered by Japan.
After angry protests by the Chinese government — and a modest rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing — prosecutors released the captain on Friday, a move that was widely interpreted as a diplomatic victory for China and an affirmation of its growing economic might.
But the release, apparently, was not enough to sooth China's fury. Hours later, Beijing demanded an apology and compensation for the fisherman's damaged ship as the state-run media celebrated the return of the captain, Zhan Qixiong. (After savoring an official celebration with fireworks and pounding drums, Mr. Zhan, 41, promptly vowed to return to the disputed waters.)
Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan, feeling the heat for his perceived bow to a longtime rival, has since rejected Chinese demands for money and an apology. For good measure, the Japanese chief cabinet secretary is asking the other side to pay for repairs to the damaged coast guard vessels.
"Naturally, we will be asking for the boats to be returned to their original condition," he said earlier in the week.
It has not helped the diplomatic efforts that China continues to hold four Japanese citizens who were arrested last Friday after being accused of videotaping at a military installation not far from Beijing. Japan's economics minister on Tuesday warned that the ban on rare-earth exports could pose a significant threat to the Japanese economy.
"We need to restore Japan-China ties, especially economic exchanges, as soon as possible," Banri Kaieda, the minister of economic and fiscal policy, told a news conference, The Associated Press reported.
Wei Zhijiang, an expert on Sino-Japan relations at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said that while the Foreign Ministry's latest comments could be viewed as an olive branch, he doubts the Chinese side will be able to say much more given how emotionally freighted the issue in China — where anti-Japanese sentiment is always just beneath the surface — and the approach of the holiday on Friday commemorating the founding of the People's Republic of China.
"From a domestic perspective, the government has an obligation to show its citizens that it is safeguarding the country's territorial integrity," Mr. Wei said. "It's a basic principle for any government that wants to be viewed by its people as competent."
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Japan mulls troop shift in China row, mineral exports resume
TOKYO: Japan is considering stationing troops near islands at the centre of a row with China, a news report said on Wednesday, but Beijing's move to ease mineral exports raised hopes for an easing of friction.
Asia's two powerhouses have been embroiled for over three weeks in their worst diplomatic spat in years, triggered by Japan's arrest of a Chinese captain after a tense maritime incident near the islets in the East China Sea.
Japan's new foreign minister Seiji Maehara, considered a China hawk, said he hoped for an improvement in relations but also said that amid the row "people in the whole world saw a part of China's essential character".
Although Japan last week freed the skipper, a war of words has raged on between the traditional rivals, with China pursuing a multi-faceted offensive of official diplomatic protests and unofficial economic measures.
Amid the heightened tensions, Japan's defence ministry has asked for a budget to study a plan to station ground troops in Japan's southwestern islands near the disputed island chain, the Nikkei business daily reported.
The only Japanese troops now permanently stationed in the far south are on the region's main island of Okinawa, also the main base for US troops in Japan, but the plan calls for troops on the remote Yonaguni island, close to Taiwan.
China, which has been increasingly assertive about various other maritime territorial claims, insists that the islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have been part of its territory since ancient times.
Amid the tensions, Beijing and Tokyo have announced no plans so far for a meeting between Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao at an Asia- Europe summit in Brussels next week.
In another sign that tensions may be gradually easing between the increasingly interdependent economic powerhouses, Japanese traders reported today that China had dropped a de-facto ban on crucial mineral exports.
Read more: Japan mulls troop shift in China row, mineral exports resume - The Times of India Japan mulls troop shift in China row, mineral exports resume - The Times of India
TOKYO: Japan is considering stationing troops near islands at the centre of a row with China, a news report said on Wednesday, but Beijing's move to ease mineral exports raised hopes for an easing of friction.
Asia's two powerhouses have been embroiled for over three weeks in their worst diplomatic spat in years, triggered by Japan's arrest of a Chinese captain after a tense maritime incident near the islets in the East China Sea.
Japan's new foreign minister Seiji Maehara, considered a China hawk, said he hoped for an improvement in relations but also said that amid the row "people in the whole world saw a part of China's essential character".
Although Japan last week freed the skipper, a war of words has raged on between the traditional rivals, with China pursuing a multi-faceted offensive of official diplomatic protests and unofficial economic measures.
Amid the heightened tensions, Japan's defence ministry has asked for a budget to study a plan to station ground troops in Japan's southwestern islands near the disputed island chain, the Nikkei business daily reported.
The only Japanese troops now permanently stationed in the far south are on the region's main island of Okinawa, also the main base for US troops in Japan, but the plan calls for troops on the remote Yonaguni island, close to Taiwan.
China, which has been increasingly assertive about various other maritime territorial claims, insists that the islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have been part of its territory since ancient times.
Amid the tensions, Beijing and Tokyo have announced no plans so far for a meeting between Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao at an Asia- Europe summit in Brussels next week.
In another sign that tensions may be gradually easing between the increasingly interdependent economic powerhouses, Japanese traders reported today that China had dropped a de-facto ban on crucial mineral exports.
Read more: Japan mulls troop shift in China row, mineral exports resume - The Times of India Japan mulls troop shift in China row, mineral exports resume - The Times of India
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China is a very pragmatic country.
They have observed the world reaction.
They are bothered that the US is gaining popularity because of these spats, more so, with Vietnam openly embracing the US with open arms!
The population in SW China are Meo/ Miao who live in most countries of SE Asia. They have the potential for creating problems since they have ethnic commonality with the neighbouring countries.
There are about 7.6 million Miao in China. Half of the Miaos live in Guizhou Province and the other half are scattered throughout Hunan (15%), Yunnan (15%), Sichuan, Guangxi, and Hubei (17%). The Miaos can generally be divided into four main groupings. The groups are the Northern, Eastern, Western and Far-Western. OMF efforts are now focusing on the Far-Western Miao which number between 2.5-3 million. They are scattered throughout southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and a large refugee community in the United States. The Far -Western Miao call themselves Hmong.
Miao originally inhabited the rich river valleys of central China, centuries of oppressive governments pushed them further south and higher into the mountains to seek refuge from their enemies.
While friendly people, they can be dangerous.
The Miao (or Hmong, as they prefer to be called) of Guizhou have a bitter history of conflict with the Han Chinese. During the Ming dynasty, both the imperial government and Han settlers fought wars against the Miao that resulted in huge death tolls. The Miao also rebelled on many occasions throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. These wars resulted in the building of the now-famous "southern Great Wall", a long wall to keep the Miao in the mountains away from Han Chinese settlements. Some have even described the Ming and Qing government policies towards the Miao as being state-sanctioned genocide, and they resulted in the dispersal of the Miao into scattered populations around Guizhou.
The last major Miao uprising was in 1856. After that time the Chinese discouraged Miao insurrections by displaying the severed heads of rebel leaders in baskets. The Miao remain bitter and still refer to the Chinese as "sons of dogs." One Miao elder said: "If you want to know the truth about our people, go ask the bear who is hurt why he defends himself, ask the dog who is kicked why he barks, ask the deer who is chased why he charges the mountains." Miao on China
I am sure all are aware of the role the Hmongs played in the Vietnam War when recruited by the elite Commando group the Green Berets.
They have observed the world reaction.
They are bothered that the US is gaining popularity because of these spats, more so, with Vietnam openly embracing the US with open arms!
The population in SW China are Meo/ Miao who live in most countries of SE Asia. They have the potential for creating problems since they have ethnic commonality with the neighbouring countries.
There are about 7.6 million Miao in China. Half of the Miaos live in Guizhou Province and the other half are scattered throughout Hunan (15%), Yunnan (15%), Sichuan, Guangxi, and Hubei (17%). The Miaos can generally be divided into four main groupings. The groups are the Northern, Eastern, Western and Far-Western. OMF efforts are now focusing on the Far-Western Miao which number between 2.5-3 million. They are scattered throughout southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and a large refugee community in the United States. The Far -Western Miao call themselves Hmong.
Miao originally inhabited the rich river valleys of central China, centuries of oppressive governments pushed them further south and higher into the mountains to seek refuge from their enemies.
While friendly people, they can be dangerous.
The Miao (or Hmong, as they prefer to be called) of Guizhou have a bitter history of conflict with the Han Chinese. During the Ming dynasty, both the imperial government and Han settlers fought wars against the Miao that resulted in huge death tolls. The Miao also rebelled on many occasions throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. These wars resulted in the building of the now-famous "southern Great Wall", a long wall to keep the Miao in the mountains away from Han Chinese settlements. Some have even described the Ming and Qing government policies towards the Miao as being state-sanctioned genocide, and they resulted in the dispersal of the Miao into scattered populations around Guizhou.
The last major Miao uprising was in 1856. After that time the Chinese discouraged Miao insurrections by displaying the severed heads of rebel leaders in baskets. The Miao remain bitter and still refer to the Chinese as "sons of dogs." One Miao elder said: "If you want to know the truth about our people, go ask the bear who is hurt why he defends himself, ask the dog who is kicked why he barks, ask the deer who is chased why he charges the mountains." Miao on China
I am sure all are aware of the role the Hmongs played in the Vietnam War when recruited by the elite Commando group the Green Berets.
