China officially labels Senkakus a 'core interest'

[Yusuf]

China officially labels Senkakus a 'core interest' - The Japan Times

BEIJING –-The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced for the first time Friday that China regards the Senkaku Islands a "core interest.""The Diaoyu Islands are about sovereignty and territorial integrity. Of course, it's China's core interest," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press conference, using China's name for the Japanese-administered isles in the East China Sea. Taiwan claims the isles as the Tiaoyutai.China usually uses the term when addressing such issues as Taiwan, Tibet and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Now Beijing has clarified that it also pertains to the Senkakus.The statement suggests that China does not intend to make any concessions on the islets, which it claims have been its inherent territory since ancient times.Hua made the comment after Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NHK in Tokyo that Chinese officials repeatedly told him during his visit to Beijing earlier in the week that the Senkakus are "one of China's core interests."Japan, which has administered the islands for decades, maintains the Senkakus are an integral part of its territory and that there is no territorial dispute over them.

 

[arnabmit]

So Li took office with the primary agenda of territorial expansion across all borders?

 

[sorcerer]

According to CRS reports.

In recent months, tensions have arisen among Japan, China, and Taiwan over a small group of islands located about 120 miles northeast of Taipei, Taiwan. Japan, China, and Taiwan claim sovereignty over the islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China and Taiwan. The islands are eight in number and are uninhabited. The largest is about two miles in length and less than one mile in width. However, geologists believe that the waters surrounding them may be rich in oil and natural gas deposits.

Ya know..Who else is interested in those islands?
Unca Sam

 

[sorcerer]

THE U.S.-JAPAN SECURITY TREATY AND THE ISLANDS

The inclusion of the Senkakus (Diaoyus) in the Okinawa Reversion Treaty under the definition of "the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands" made Article II of the Treaty applicable to the islands. Article II states that "treaties, conventions and other agreements concluded between Japan and the United States of America, including, but without limitation the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America... become applicable to the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands as of the date of entry into force of this Agreement." Using "Okinawa" as shorthand for the territory covered by the Treaty, Secretary of State Rogers stated in his testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee that the Security Treaty "becomes applicable to Okinawa" the same as applied to the Japanese home islands.14 Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard, in his testimony, stressed that Japan would assume the "primar responsibility" for the defense of the treaty area but that the Security Treaty was applicable. In short, while maintaining neutrality on the competing claims, the United States
agreed in the Okinawa Reversion Treaty to apply the Security Treaty to the treaty area, including the Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands. It also should be noted that in ratifying the In short, while maintaining neutrality on the competing claims, the United States agreed in the Okinawa Reversion Treaty to apply the Security Treaty to the treaty area, including the Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands. It also should be noted that in ratifying the Treaty, the Senate did not act on the advice of several committee witnesses that it include in the instrument of ratification reservations concerning the Senkakus. Moreover, the Security Treaty itself declares in Article V that each party would act "in accordance with its constitutional provisions and processes" in response to "an armed attack. . .in the territories under the administration of Japan." "Administration" rather than "sovereignty" is the key distinction that applies to the islands. Since 1971, the United States and Japan have not altered the application of the Security Treaty to the islands.

Source :CRS