The History of the Diaoyu Islands Dispute and Challenges It Raises

The origin of the Diaoyu Islands dispute is intimately connected to Japan’s aggression against the Chinese mainland, and the absorption of the Ryukyu kingdom into Japan in 1879 was a key precursor to this. Since the Ming Emperor dispatched his envoy Yang Zai on an embassy to the Ryukyu king in 1372, the Ryuku kingdom had been a tributary state of the Chinese Empire. The Diaoyu Islands, from this time on, had been regularly used by Chinese sailors as a seamark on journeys to Ryuku and as a base against pirates. In a 500-year history of friendly exchanges between Ryukyu and China, there was no territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands. The maritime boundary between China and Ryukyu is in the Okinawa trough, between Akao Island in the Diaoyu group and the Kume Islands of the Ryukyu kingdom. There were 36 islands in Ryukyu kingdom, but it never claimed the Diaoyu Islands. Japan asserted its control of the Ryukyu kingdom in 1872, and fully annexed it into its civil administration in 1879, renaming it as Okinawa prefecture. Though the underlying cause of the Diaoyu Islands dispute might be traced back to 1872 when Japan first absorbed Ryukyu and renamed it as Ryukyu Han, the more immediate cause is the First Sino-Japanese War, launched by Japan in 1894. In the course of that conflict, on 14th January 1895, the Japanese Cabinet secretly decided to occupy the Diaoyu Islands. After the War ended with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, Japan ruled Taiwan as a colony for 50 years, and took possession of the Diaoyu Islands at the same time. From 1945 to 1972, the Diaoyu Islands were removed from Japan’s jurisdiction and came under the control of the U.S. military