http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/09/20129255327498152.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-24/and-now-taiwan-also-claiming-senkaku-islands
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/24/2012 19:30 -0400
and.....
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-23/apples-foxconn-china-plant-damaged-riots-resume
( China losing control over the protests ? ? )
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/23/2012 17:12 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-23/china-officially-warns-japan-not-infringe-its-territorial-sovereignty-japan-reciproc
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/23/2012 10:58 -0400
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-sidesteps-disputes-with-southeast-asian-neighbors-in-contrast-to-island-feud-with-japan/2012/09/21/eb4c31e4-0460-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_print.html
The protest, organized by the nationalist group “Ganbare Nippon,” or “Go for It, Japan,” followed scores of sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China in recent weeks.
Though hundreds of Japanese protesters gathered in a downtown park and then marched through the glitzy Roppongi district, authorities only allowed small groups of five people each to visit the sidewalk opposite the Chinese Embassy.
“Come on out of there!” some of the protesters screamed at the well-guarded embassy building, which was closed. Dozens of police kept order, moving the groups away from the embassy after only a few minutes.
In the past few days, Chinese authorities appear to have reined in angry anti-Japanese demonstrations that they had been allowing in recent weeks.
After Japan’s government purchased some of the islands, claimed by both sides but controlled by Tokyo, from their private Japanese owners last week, the protests intensified and Beijing sent surveillance ships into waters near the islands.
The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have long been a lightning rod for simmering Chinese resentment toward Japan for its brutal invasion and occupation of parts of China in the first half of the 20th century.
Organizers of Saturday’s march said more than 1,400 people participated. That figure appeared high, but a rough count found at least 800 protesters.
Trucks festooned with anti-China banners used megaphones to blare slogans such as “We will not forgive China!” and “We have the power to protect our nation!”
Many protesters carried large Japanese flags or placards reading “Sink the Chinese boats in our waters” and “Do not give in to the Beijing terrorists.”
“The Chinese claims over the islands are recent and this is plain stupidity,” said Masanori Ono, 69, who was marching in the protest.
| Japan confronts Taiwanese fishing boats | |
Water cannon fired at Taiwanese vessels near chain of East China Sea islands claimed by China, Japan and Taiwan.
Last Modified: 25 Sep 2012 07:04
| |
Japanese Coast Guard ships sprayed water at Taiwanese fishing boats near the disputed islands on Tuesday [Reuters]
| |
| Japanese coast guard have fired water cannon at dozens of Taiwanese boats near a chain of disputed islands. The Taiwanese fleet, which includes fishing boats and armed coast guard vessels, entered the waters in the East China Sea on Tuesday, according to the Japanese coast guard.
After Japan and China, Taiwan is the third country to lay claim on the islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
Japanese coast guard vessels fired water cannon to turn away around 40 Taiwanese fishing boats and the accompanying Taiwanese coast guard vessels early on Tuesday morning, a government official said. Osamu Fujimura, the Japanese cabinet secretary, said that the coast guard used water cannon and other measures to get the Taiwanese boats to change course. "We've just lodged a protest with the Taiwan side," he said. "Our stance is that this is something that needs to be solved in the context of good bilateral ties between Japan and Taiwan. We would like to address the issue calmly." Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao, reporting from Japan’s Yonaguni islands, said that Taiwan, which until now has not involved itself in the conflict, made its claim “very loudly” on Tuesday. “[Japan’s] concern is not so much the fishing vessels, but the fact that they are being accompanied by about 10 Taiwan coast guard vessels,” he said. The boats were part of a fleet that left Taiwan on Monday pledging to stake their claim to islands where they say they have ancestral fishing rights. Large-scale breach All the Taiwanese vessels had since left the territorial waters, the Japanese coast guard said. Our correspondent quoted Taiwanese officials as saying that their coast guard ships were "armed and ordered to defend their vessels in the face of what they called, 'Japanese aggression'". Their arrival and large-scale breach of what Japan considers its territorial waters will further complicate an already high-stakes confrontation pitting Tokyo against Beijing. China's agriculture ministry, for its part, said that close to 200 Chinese boats have been fishing in seas around a group of rocky islands disputed with Japan. The brief Chinese statement did not specify whether the boats were all there at one time, nor did it say how close they were to the islands.
China, which regards self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province, may have included Taiwanese fishing vessels in its estimate.
Japan administers the uninhabited, but strategically well-positioned, archipelago under the name Senkaku. China says it has owned the islands for centuries and calls them Diaoyu. Taiwan, whose coast lies around 200km from the islands, claims the Diaoyutai belong to it. Ownership of the islands, which have rich fishing grounds and potentially large oil and gas reserves, has become an important tenet of identity for all three claimants. Relations between Japan and China have hit a new low in recent weeks following the former's nationalisation of three of the islands, which it bought from a private Japanese landowner. Al Jazeera’s Marga Ortigas, reporting from Hong Kong, said that China had officially declared its ownership of the islands by submitting a map including them in its territory to the UN in September. However, for the dispute to be resolved it would need to be taken to the International Court of Justice. This is something that both countries do not want, she said, “because neither country might be as certain that the courts will side with them in the dispute. “Talking is their only option, but there is still no idea about what the solution might be in the long run.” Rally against Japan Japan's coast guard said on Monday that two of China's maritime surveillance ships had spent seven hours in territorial waters around Uotsurijima, the largest island in the chain. Two fisheries patrol boats briefly also entered the 12-nautical-mile zone around the chain, the coast guard said. Tuesday morning's incident came after hundreds of slogan-chanting Taiwanese activists held a rally against Japan in Taipei on Sunday.
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-24/and-now-taiwan-also-claiming-senkaku-islands
Now Taiwan Is Also Claiming The Senkaku Islands: 70 Fishing Boats Set Sail To Stake Claim
If you thought it was complicated when "only" China and Japan were disputing the recent escalation in property rights over who owns those three particular rock in the East China Sea, to be henceforth called the Senkaku Islands for simplicity's sake because things are about to get far more confusing, here comes Taiwan, aka the Republic of China, not to be confused with the People's Republic of China for the simple reason that the latter officially asserts itself to be the sole legal representation of China and actively claims Taiwan to be under its sovereignty, denying the status and existence of ROC as a sovereign state (yet one which benefits from US backing), to also stake its claim over the disputed Senkaku Islands. It has done so in a very confusing manner: by replicating what it thinks China did some days ago when an "armada" of 1000 fishing boats set sail in an unknown direction and which the trigger happy media immediately assumed was in direction Senkaku. It subsequently turned out that this was not the case and as we reported, "China's fishing season stops every year in June-September in the East China Sea, where the islands are located. This year, the ban was lifted on Sunday." In short the (PR)China fishing boat amrada was not headed toward the Senkakus. Taiwan however did not get the memo, and as NKH reports, "several dozen Taiwanese fishing boats have set sail for the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, to claim access to their fishing grounds."
So to summarize: a country which (PR)China claims does not exist and is under its own sovereign control, has replicated what it thought was (PR)China's strategic move to reclaim the Senkaku Islands (which was nothing of the sort), and is sending its own fishing boat armada to reclaim islands whose ownership has sent Japan and (PR)China on the verge of more than mere diplomatic warfare. The only thing that could make this any more confusing is if someone discovered title deeds ceding ownership of the Senkakus to Japan, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China at the same time, and signed by Linda Green.
From NHK:
More than 70 boats from a fishing cooperative in northeastern Taiwan set out Monday afternoon, hoisting banners claiming that the islands belong to Taiwan, and that Taiwan's sovereignty and fishing rights must be protected.The cooperative is protesting Japan's purchase of 3 of the islands in the Senkaku chain from a private owner earlier this month. The cooperative says the waters surrounding the islands have long been a major Taiwanese fishing ground.The cooperative says the boats will be joined by vessels from other cooperatives along the way to the islands.The fleet plans to arrive at a point about 40 kilometers southwest of the islands by early Tuesday morning.
The boats are to circle near the islands after forming into groups of 5, with the aim of entering Japanese territorial waters.More than 10 Taiwanese Coast Guard vessels will be on hand to monitor the fishing fleet's activities.So who's next in order of territorial claims - Argentina?In short- utter confusion which can only mean one thing - sit beck and enjoy. It's popcorn time.
and.....
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-23/apples-foxconn-china-plant-damaged-riots-resume
( China losing control over the protests ? ? )
Apple's FoxConn China Plant Damaged As Riots Resume
Following the riots at Apple's FoxConn Chengdu plant in June,engadget is reporting that FoxConn's Taiyuan plant - the scene of earlier strikes over salary disputes back in March - has suffered damage as workers riot. Police are on site to control the crowd and while the motive is not clear, it is apparently unrelated to the recent anti-Japan protests. It appears - based on the clip and photos below - that much damage has been done in the process.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-23/china-officially-warns-japan-not-infringe-its-territorial-sovereignty-japan-reciproc
China Officially Warns Japan Not To Infringe Its Territorial Sovereignty; Japan Reciprocates
- Afghanistan
- China
- fixed
- Foreign Investments
- headlines
- Japan
- Layering
- Reality
- Turkmenistan
- Wall Street Journal
If yesterday it was the Middle East's turn to escalate, today it is the Far East, aka Pacific Rim, where China and Japan both remind the world nothing has been fixed in the diplomatic snafu between the two countries over a barren rock in the East China Sea.
First, it was China, which on the front page of the biggest dailyXinhua, over the weekend, demanded that Japan immediately stop infringing upon its "territorial sovereignty. To wit: "China asked Japan to immediately stop all acts that harm China's territorial sovereignty, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said late Saturday, after some Japanese landed on the Diaoyu Islands. Hong said the Japanese landed on the Diaoyu Islands Friday evening with the excuse of preventing Taiwanese activists from landing on the islets. "It is a severe infringement upon China's territorial sovereignty, and the Chinese government has lodged solemn representations and strong protests to the Japanese side," Hong said in a statement."
Other concurrent headlines make it quite clear that it is in China's interest to stir populist anger at Japan instead of seeking an amicable resolution. Observe: "Japan urged to "repent" over Diaoyu Islands", "Japan's Noda needs to reset his China policy", "China announces names of geographic entities on Diaoyu Islands", "Safeguarding Diaoyu Islands sovereignty a long-term struggle: official" and the funniest one: "Reception to mark 40th anniversary of normalization of China-Japan ties adjusted".
Which brings us to the second - Japan - which, not known for backing down once it has staked its geopolitical ambitions, has likewise warned China to tone down its response to what, at least so far, has been a clearly provocative move by Japan.
Here's everyone's favorite "watcher" Noda, via the WSJ:
Japan's prime minister warned China that its inflammatory reaction to a territorial dispute—from violent protests to apparent informal trade sanctions—could further weaken the Asian giant's already-fragile economy by scaring away foreign investors. The comments showed the risks that the tense diplomatic standoff could broaden into a damaging commercial tit-for-tat between the world's second and third largest economies."China should be developing through the various foreign investments it receives," Yoshihiko Noda told The Wall Street Journal following a tense week filled with news of Japanese factories torched and cars overturned, and Chinese patrol boats hovering in and around territorial waters controlled by Japan. "I hope for its level-headed and rational understanding that anything to discourage that is a disservice to itself," the prime minister added during the interview in his residence Saturday.
And now that it has been duly warned that it should just keep doing what it's doing and ignore Japan's escalating territorial aspirations, we are confident China will promptly pack up and leave, and forever disown any claims over disputed territories around the world. Or not.
As for Japan, as we warned last week, the Chinese territories dispute is just the beginning.
Japan is simultaneously ensnared in an increasingly bitter tiff with another neighbor, South Korea, both over a separate territorial argument, as well as a debate over whether Japan has made adequate amends for its World War II aggression. Mr. Noda made clear in the interview that his government had no intention of making the concessions Seoul has demanded as necessary for repairing diplomatic ties frayed in recent months, indicating an extended period of friction there as well.Asked if he would consider providing new compensation for the so-called comfort women who served as sex slaves for the Japanese soldiers, Mr. Noda said firmly: "The matter is closed." He said South Korean criticism that Japan's previous offerings were insufficient "hurt the feelings of conscientious Japanese and it is a pity."In addition to the isles dispute with China, Japan faces another with South Korea, which has evolved into an issue over Japan's wartime compensation. The South Korean foreign minister is widely expected to raise demands for new "comfort women" compensation in his U.N. speech. The long-simmering issue has heated up over the past year, after the South Korean constitutional court ruled that the country's leaders had violated the law by failing to negotiate a new compensation package with Japan. That put new pressure on South Korea's leaders, and Seoul has since twice asked Tokyo to hold consultations, but the requests were turned down.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak cited the lack of progress on the issue as a reason for the recent flare-up in their bilateral territorial rivalry over a group of tiny islets known as the Liancourt Rocks, including his surprise August visit to the area called Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan. After that, South Korea's National Assembly passed a resolution demanding more formal apologies and compensation from the Japanese government over the comfort women issue.
Surely it is just a matter of time before Noda, trade relations amounting to $350 billion a year with China already in tatters, will attempt to tone done the escalation, but in a way which saves Japan's face: i.e., China has to present the other cheek. This is not going to happen, as noted above:
But Beijing indicated Sunday that it wasn't ready to move on, with the official Xinhua news agency reporting that the Chinese government had decided to cancel various ceremonies scheduled for later this week related to the 40th anniversary of normalization of postwar diplomatic ties between the two nations.
So, after finding himself between a rock and 1.4 billion hard cases, in a situation he himself has escalated, Noda does the one thing he can do: redirect, this time by dragging the US into it.
Mr. Noda implied that other countries would conclude they are vulnerable to same kind of harassment facing the Japanese—and possibly curb investments—making a point of citing the incident in Beijing on Tuesday where anti-Japanese protesters briefly surrounded the American ambassador's car, causing minor damage. "Even the U.S. embassy and its official car came under attack," Mr. Noda said.
The thing is China may or may not do without Japan, it however can't exist, at least for now, without the US. And vice versa. So any attempts to drag the US into the conflict will backfire severely on Japan. But for a country which has already demonstrated an abysmal lack of tact in foreign relations comparable to the one in the period 1930-1950, layering mistake upon mistake is to be expected.
Of course, all of this is well-known, as is the reality that the situation will escalate until someone has to decide whether to truly push it to the next level, or step down, humilating his country in the process, something Asian states have never been too keen on. What, however, was the most important article in today's Pacific Rim press is this onewhich has nothing to do with Japan, and everything to do with China's expanding zone of influence: "China's top security official on Saturday made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, the first time in 46 years that a Chinese leader set his foot on the soil of this landlocked Asian country."
Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, arrived at the Kabul airport late in the afternoon.The four-hour visit had not been announced by Beijing due to security concerns. It followed a two-day trip of Zhou to Singapore, where he met Singaporean leaders on bilateral ties.Zhou, who is also secretary of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, will also go to Turkmenistan.
The last visit by a Chinese leader to neighboring Afghanistan was made by Liu Shaoqi in 1966 when he was the President of China.During the past half century, Afghanistan was afflicted with series of military coups and two major wars commenced by the former Soviet Union and the United States respectively.The country is still the front line in the U.S.-led war against terrorism and is undergoing daily bombing and bleeding.In Kabul, Zhou was warmly received by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The two leaders held a bilateral meeting.
US poppy-seed and opium trade power vacuum, not to mention up to $1 trillion in "untapped minerals" beware: here comes China.
Misdirection indeed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-sidesteps-disputes-with-southeast-asian-neighbors-in-contrast-to-island-feud-with-japan/2012/09/21/eb4c31e4-0460-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_print.html
Hundreds march in Tokyo in anti-China protest over territorial dispute
By Associated Press,
TOKYO — Hundreds of Japanese marched through downtown Tokyo on Saturday in a loud but tightly controlled protest against China’s claim to disputed islands in the East China Sea.The protest, organized by the nationalist group “Ganbare Nippon,” or “Go for It, Japan,” followed scores of sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China in recent weeks.
Though hundreds of Japanese protesters gathered in a downtown park and then marched through the glitzy Roppongi district, authorities only allowed small groups of five people each to visit the sidewalk opposite the Chinese Embassy.
“Come on out of there!” some of the protesters screamed at the well-guarded embassy building, which was closed. Dozens of police kept order, moving the groups away from the embassy after only a few minutes.
In the past few days, Chinese authorities appear to have reined in angry anti-Japanese demonstrations that they had been allowing in recent weeks.
After Japan’s government purchased some of the islands, claimed by both sides but controlled by Tokyo, from their private Japanese owners last week, the protests intensified and Beijing sent surveillance ships into waters near the islands.
The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have long been a lightning rod for simmering Chinese resentment toward Japan for its brutal invasion and occupation of parts of China in the first half of the 20th century.
Organizers of Saturday’s march said more than 1,400 people participated. That figure appeared high, but a rough count found at least 800 protesters.
Trucks festooned with anti-China banners used megaphones to blare slogans such as “We will not forgive China!” and “We have the power to protect our nation!”
Many protesters carried large Japanese flags or placards reading “Sink the Chinese boats in our waters” and “Do not give in to the Beijing terrorists.”
“The Chinese claims over the islands are recent and this is plain stupidity,” said Masanori Ono, 69, who was marching in the protest.
Leaders of the demonstration appeared to be making the best of the limits imposed by police.
“Unlike the violent Chinese, we Japanese are holding a calm, peaceful protest,” one organizer said over a loudspeaker. “This is our Japanese way.”
Though the anti-Japanese demonstrations in China, which included attacks on Japanese businesses, appear to have wound down, the rhetoric on both sides has remained uncompromising and there are no signs of progress in resolving the territorial dispute.
Saturday’s demonstration was the first large-scale protest over the issue in Japan, though right-wing protesters in black trucks routinely blast epithets at the Chinese Embassy.
“Unlike the violent Chinese, we Japanese are holding a calm, peaceful protest,” one organizer said over a loudspeaker. “This is our Japanese way.”
Though the anti-Japanese demonstrations in China, which included attacks on Japanese businesses, appear to have wound down, the rhetoric on both sides has remained uncompromising and there are no signs of progress in resolving the territorial dispute.
Saturday’s demonstration was the first large-scale protest over the issue in Japan, though right-wing protesters in black trucks routinely blast epithets at the Chinese Embassy.
and.....
China ‘Strongly’ Opposes Japan Landing on Disputed Islands
By Bloomberg News - Sep 22, 2012 10:09 PM ET
China “strongly” opposes the landing of Japanese citizens on disputed islands, the Foreign Ministry said.
Japan’s move “constitutes a severe violation of China’s territorial sovereignty” and Japan “must immediately stop all activities that infringe upon China’s sovereignty,” spokesman Hong Lei said in a brief statement late yesterday on the ministry’s website.
Japanese nationals visited the islands Sept. 21 with the excuse of preventing a landing by Taiwanese activists, he said. China Central Television described the Japanese group as security personnel.
The dispute over the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japanese, has produced the worst diplomatic crisis between China and Japan since 2005 and may continue to threaten trade ties between Asia’s two biggest economies. The issue sparked violent protests in China against Japanese shops and businesses earlier this month after Japan’s government announced plans to buy the isles.
“China will continue to take measures to resolutely defend its sovereignty over the Diaoyu islands,” Hong said, without elaborating.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported today that the ruling Chinese Communist Party will send a delegation to Japan tomorrow as part of the diplomatic efforts to ease tensions over the dispute.
Peaceful Solution
China is committed to solving disputes over territory and maritime rights peacefully, Vice President Xi Jinping said in a speech at the China-Asean Business and Investment Summit in southern China on Sept. 21. At the same time, it will defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.
Japan must be firm “without being provocative or being provoked” on territorial issues, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on the same day.
About 700 people marched in central Tokyo yesterday to protest China’s claim to the rocky islands and the presence of Chinese surveillance ships in nearby waters, the Sankei newspaper reported on its website, citing police estimates.
The march was planned by Ganbare Nippon, the group that organized a boat trip to the islands last month by about 150 Japanese after activists from Hong Kong were arrested for landing on one and planting a Chinese flag.
Yesterday’s protesters marched about one kilometer (0.6 miles) carrying flags and placards, while chanting “We’ll defend the Senkakus,” according to the Sankei report.
China and Japan’s business relations “have obviously been affected by Japan’s purchase of the Diaoyu Islands” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong said Sept. 21. “Japan should face squarely the realities and correct its mistakes.”
Authorities in Beijing published a list of Chinese names and descriptions of islands in theEast China Sea claimed by both China and Japan, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.
Engaging China in a broader regional role is essential to preventing tensions in Pacific, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in an interview today with Television New Zealand.
“The territorial problems that we’re facing right now are a good example,” he said according to an e-mailed transcript. “If nations can’t resolve that, that could be real trouble in this region.”
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