Friday, September 28, 2012

Japan Stole Diaoyu Islands, Chinese Foreign Minister Said in the UN


Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi repeated China's claim that "Japan tricked China into signing a treaty" and stole the islands.

China's UN envoy Li Baodong said the Japanese government’s purchase of the islands was based purely on "the logic of robbers".

From South China Morning Post, citing AFP (9/28/2012):

Japan 'stole' Diaoyu Islands, China tells UN

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi sparked angry exchanges with Japanese diplomats at the United Nations on Thursday by accusing Japan of stealing disputed islands.

Chinese and Japanese envoys staged a series of attacks after Yang heightened tensions over the East China Sea islands and reopened old diplomatic wounds over the second world war

The Japanese government’s purchase of the uninhabited islands from a private owner this month has infuriated Beijing and set off violent protests in several Chinese cities.

“China strongly urges Japan to immediately stop all activities that violate China’s territorial sovereignty, take concrete actions to correct its mistakes and return to the track of resolving the dispute through negotiation,” Yang told the UN assembly.

China has demanded the return of the uninhabited islands, known as the Diaoyu in Chinese and the Senkaku in Japanese, for decades. Taiwan also claims the islands.

Yang reaffirmed his country’s historical claim that Japan tricked China into signing a treaty ceding the islands in 1895. Japan states that the islands were legally incorporated into its territory.

“The moves taken by Japan are totally illegal and invalid. They can in no way change the historical fact that Japan stole Diaoyu and its affiliated islands from China and the fact that China has territorial sovereignty over them,” said the Chinese minister.

Japan’s move was in “outright denial” of its defeat in the second world war, he added, reaffirming China’s repeated references to the 1939-45 war.

Yang and Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba held stern talks on the dispute in New York on Tuesday, and Yang’s speech sparked sharp exchanges between Japanese and Chinese diplomats as each sought a right of reply.

Insisting that Japan legally incorporated the islands into its territory in 1895, Japan’s deputy UN ambassador Kazuo Kodama said that “an assertion that Japan took the islands from China cannot logically stand.”

Kodama added that the references to the second world war were “unconvincing and unproductive.”

China’s UN envoy Li Baodong responded that “the Japanese delegate once again brazenly distorted history, resorting to spurious fallacious arguments that defy all reason and logic to justify their aggression of Chinese territory.”

“The Japanese government still clings to its obsolete colonial mindset,” Li added. “China is capable of safeguarding the integrity of its territory,” the ambassador warned.

When Kodama responded that the islands “are clearly an inherent territory of Japan,” Li returned to the attack. He said his Japanese counterpart “feels no guilt for Japan’s history of aggression and colonialism.”

The Japanese government’s purchase of the islands is based purely on “the logic of robbers,” he stormed.


In the meantime, Zero Hedge has an article from the same paper about potential bankruptcy of a boom town in Guangdong Province.

Wag the dog.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess they signed it using the logic of suckers, then?

And who are they "stealing" the islands from? The Kraken? Mother Earth? Aliens from Pluto? Emperor Palpatine?

Anonymous said...

The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands...

"I’ve had a longstanding interest in the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, the subject of a dangerous territorial dispute between Japan and China. The United States claims to be neutral but in effect is siding with Japan, and we could be drawn in if a war ever arose. Let me clear that I deplore the violence in the recent anti-Japan protests in China: the violence is reprehensible and makes China look like an irrational bully. China’s government should rein in this volatile nationalism rather than feed it. This is a dispute that both sides should refer to the International Court of Justice, rather than allow to boil over in the streets. That said, when I look at the underlying question of who has the best claim, I’m sympathetic to China’s position. I don’t think it is 100 percent clear, partly because China seemed to acquiesce to Japanese sovereignty between 1945 and 1970, but on balance I find the evidence for Chinese sovereignty quite compelling. The most interesting evidence is emerging from old Japanese government documents and suggests that Japan in effect stole the islands from China in 1895 as booty of war. This article by Han-Yi Shaw, a scholar from Taiwan, explores those documents. I invite any Japanese scholars to make the contrary legal case." – Nicholas Kristof

Anonymous said...

I wish animals or supernatural/extra-terrestrial beings would claim the islands. Hilarity would ensue.

Anonymous said...

FREE TIBET!

Anonymous said...

Why dont they just build a Monju type reactor on Senkaku so Ishihara can do his mad experiments... at the taxpayers expense...

Anonymous said...

They should build a Monju type reactor in Ishihara's bedroom.

Anonymous said...

I will sell you these islands for a fair price,i give you a certificate with a signature.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a greedy man,the highest bidder wins,funds to be tranfered to my bank account no later than 12th October 2012.

Winner gets the signed certificate and the loser takes a cheque for the offered sum as a refund.

Both certificate and cheque will be handed in personally at the interested parties respective embassies in London on the 15th October 2012.

No other negotiations will be entered into,happy bidding.

Anonymous said...

Let's rename them the DO IOU islands.

Anonymous said...

Oh, now it appears the chinese Gov. compares this "Senkaku war bounty" to an "Atomic Bomb" attack. No joking.
50 000 Japanese cancelling trips to China, 15 000 Koreans cancelling trips to Japan.
As the song says "What a wonderfull world...

Anonymous said...

"Japan stole the islands as a booty of war"

Swings and roundabouts.

China will "steal" them back, eventually..long after Ishihara et al are cremated. Let us only hope they stop there and don't take back Okinawa, too, all the sea and other islands in between them and Kyushu, the Pacific sea lanes, the Malacca straits (oil and food for TPP'D (torpedoed?) Japan with < 35% food security-lol this country just can't think what's best for the long term)...unlike China.
Japan then would be a mere potable water font and lebensraum for Chinese. Japan will be too wrinkly to care. America will just go with the money, no real loyalty there, and we'll have Mandarin JET programs instead of English.

Post a Comment