Maritime Disputes: The ECS

Shunji Cui Department of Political Science

School of Public Affairs

Zhejiang University

Email: ssjcui@zju.edu.cn

PEAP ： L13

Nationalism and the ECS Disputes

Disputes among PRC, ROC, and Japan – has constantly re-erupted and become one of the most politically and emotionally sensitive conflicts between the Chinese and Japanese since the end of WWII.

It highlights the complexities of growing nationalism in both China and Japan, and in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Why?

Do they know the legal, historical and geographical backgrounds of the disputes?

Do they know the reasons of the other party’s claim?

Why it has been so difficult for Chinese/Japanese governments to pursue conciliatory foreign policies towards each other?

Fishing Platform/Pinnacle Islands钓鱼台列屿 / 尖閣列島

Diaoyutai / Senkaku Islands A chain of tiny 8 islands

5 uninhabitable islands, 3 barren rocks All are volcanic formations

from the Neocene age Largest Island

钓鱼台 / 鱼钓岛 surface area: 3.5 square km.

Island Purchasing Row 2012-9-11, J government

purchasing the Island

Geographical Location

120 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan

200 nm east of PRC

200 nm southwest of Naha, Okinawa

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,1982

Territorial Waters– 12 nm The sovereign territory of

the state But foreign ships (both

military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it

Exclusive Economic Zone—200 nm Control of all economic

resources, including fishing, mining, oil exploration, and any pollution of those resources.

Legal Issues

Exclusive Economic Zone, if applied to Japan

Japanese Claim: 1895~ 1885~: 10-y survey, terra nullius (land

without owner) 1895-1-14: Meiji Cabinet’s decision to

incorporate the islands into Japanese territory actual control.

1896-4-1: Placed under the administration of Ishigaki, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture

1895-4-17: Signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki 1895-5: the Treaty came to effect.

China’s Claim: Historical 1

Not terra nullius , but have been part of its territory

since ancient times.

Historical Records:

1430, 顺风相送 (Fair winds for escort), earliest, a

non-official Chinese navigational record.

1534, 使琉球录 , earliest official record of the

Imperial Envoy's Visit to Ryūkyū.

Those islands served as important fishing grounds

administered by the province of Taiwan.

China’s Claim: Historical 2 1874: Japan took Ryukyu Islands

Japan took Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) from China by force when Chinese Qing Dynasty was involved in several wars with other foreign countries

However, the Diaoyu Islands still remained under the administration of Taiwan, a part of China.

1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki After being defeated by Japan in the Sino-Japan War

(1894-95), China ceded Taiwan to Japan under the Shimonoseki Treaty.

As a part of Taiwan, the Diaoyutai Islands belonged to Japan at that time.

Japan's Claim: After WWII

1951: The San Francisco Treaty (US-J) Japan renounced claims to a number of

territories and islands including Taiwan the Nansei Shoto ( 南西 Nansei islands) came

under US trusteeship 1971: the Okinawa reversion deal

Nansei Shoto ( 南西诸岛 ) returned to Japan Thus, the islands are under Japan’s

control China is just for oil No disputes over the Islands

China’s Claim: after WWII Cairo Declaration (1943) & Potsdam

Proclamation (1945) Taiwan was returned to China at the end of World

War II The Japanese government accepted the terms that

stated in these documents "...that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria and Formosa(Taiwan) shall be restored to the Republic of China.”

Thus, deny the effects of 1951 San Francisco Treaty (US-J).

Emerging Disputes This issue remain quiet through the 1950s and

1960s Chinese civil war, Chiang Kai-Shek’s reluctance Small uninhabited islands held little interests for the

three parties?

1969: the UN Economic Commission for Asia and Far East (ECAFE) suggested possible large hydrocarbon ( 碳氢化合物 ) deposit in the vicinity of the Islands.

China-Japan normalization – 搁置 . Crises in the 1990s and in the 21c.

Main Problems and Challenges

(1) International law presents many unanswered questions about the Islands dispute

What is the nature of discovery and occupation for uninhabited islands?

Were the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands part of Taiwan or Okinawa before 1895?

How will the disputed islands affect maritime jurisdiction?

(2) But the true difficulty is political, involving history and national pride on both sides. Japan’s imperialism China’s century of humiliation

The Sino-Centric World Order

Until it encountered the European IS in mid-19c

East Asia ：A self-contained world == the ‘Chinese world order’ ‘the East Asian world order’ This Sino-centric world was a ‘regional’ society, or a ‘sub-global international system’It developed within the area of Chinese culture and was heavily influenced by the civilisation of ancient China. It co-existed with the European society of states until the mid-nineteenth century.

The Sino-Centric World Order Yet it was also a unified and ‘universal’ empire, which

theoretically embraced the entire world.

J. K. Fairbank (1968): Although in European parlance, it became the Far East,

in Chinese terms this Far Eastern world was Sino-centric.

From time of the Middle Kingdom ( 中国 , China), it was dominated by the Chinese empire ( 天下 , all-

under-heaven), presided over by the Son of Heaven ( 天子 , the Chinese

emperor).

The European Expansion to East Asia 19c, the West Expansion, the failure of normal

trading and diplomatic relations. The Opium War, 1840 ～

Treaty of Nanjing with Britain (1842) Treaty of Tianjin with Russia (1860) They were opprobrium ‘unequal treaties’ Imposed, dictated unequal obligations, compromised

China’s sovereignty, symbolized evolving perception of humiliation and injustice.

From Western Intrusion to Japanese Imperialism Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95 Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1930s, and

conquering most of Chinese territory 1940s

The Collapse of Chinese Empire The entry of China and Japan into the Western-dominated

international society indicated that end of Chinese WO But it is still important to ask as how???? The impact of external threat??? bound regional actors more

strongly together against a common enemy?? If so, Western expansion might have generated a regional

collective identity, a ‘we-ness’ against the ‘other’. Yet the processes telling us something different stories. There was no ‘common response’ and, indeed, if anything,

regional collective identity was weakened rather than strengthened. In particular, the rise of Sino-Japanese rivalry, and Korea became the focal point in this drama.

The Arrival of Nationalism From Culturalism to Nationalism, 19c

Sense of victimization and humiliation Reactive sentiment against imperialism

Nationalism in the West ( though has many facets & difficult to define, Popular sovereignty, Democracy, Human Right, National

Self-Determination

Nationalism in China Though borrowed above concepts to gain

independence Self-determination == Decolonization Defensive, reactive, negative Dual identity – once a great power but also a weak and

victimized nation

Nationalism = Patriotism Nationalism （民族主义 minzu zhuyi ） Patriotism （爱国主义 aiguo zhuyi ）

Loving your country, Dislodging foreign rules (Western, Japan)Political legitimacyChinese Civil War, 1946-49Communist victoryPeoples Republic of China, 1949

Nationalism and National Identity in PRC, 1949 ～ Nationalism – natural development Nationalism – as a state-led ideology

Top-Down Loyalty to the party and national unity

Political legitimacyMarxism-Leninism, Nationalism

Patriotic educationMovies, songs, pictures – Official memory

representation

Chinese Foreign Policy in 1970s:Pragmatism and Flexibility

Sino-American rapprochement Anti-Americanism: Rhetoric and

Substance

Sino-Japanese normalisation The policy of ‘separation’ (‘qufen-lun’) Renouncing war reparations

Nationalism did little interfere FP Yet, nationalism was still an

important FP tool.

Nationalism in 1990s Patriotic education campaign ( 国情教育 Education

on national conditions) Emphasis on continuation of one party rule Appeal to history – China’s humiliation and suffering in

the foreign hands, Nanjing Massacre, 1937.

Main Reasons Tiananmen Crackdown The demise of Soviet Union

FP were under greater pressure, less flexible Deng Xiaoping: southern tour 1992 Invitation to the Emperor of Japan in 1992

Growing Popular Nationalism1980s Nationalism from a state-led to society-driven

phenomenon The controversies over Japan’s treatment of its

modern history Text book issue, 1982 ～ Yasukuni shrine visit

The emerging Chinese redress movement Wartime forced labour, comfort women, poison gas

The role of internet in mobilising mass nationalist sentiment More than 500m (June 2012) netizens, largest

cyberspace country in the world.

Foreign Policy Implications-1

Nationalism: double edged swardAnti-Japan turned against its government,

resulting in social and political instability?Eg, government attitudes to redress moments In 1992, when the J Emperor visiting ChinaHandling 1996 Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands

disputes Pragmatic Elements V. Mass Nationalist

Sentiment

Foreign Policy Implications-2 CCP’s policy control and freedom of

maneuver: were increasingly challengedChina’s High-speed Railway ‘new thinking’ on Japan, 2002-03 Attempts to Joint development of a disputed

gas field in the East China Sea (18 June 2008 agreement)

Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands DisputesNationalism has increasingly become

China’s FP Constrains