The relationship between China and Japan is being repeatedly strained because of a group of abandoned islands, which are known as Senkaku islands in Japan and Diaoyu islands in China.
EARLIER CHINA had a dispute with Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal or the Huangyan Island, and it canceled all the dealings and travel to Philippines, which had a great affect on trade and the nation's economy. And now history is repeating, with Philippines substituted with Japan and the Huangyan Island with Senkaku Islands.
The Senkaku islands or the Diaoyu islands are eight uninhibited islands that lie in East China Sea, with a total area of seven square kilometers. The islands is an important shipping lane and a good fishing ground, apart from this, the islands are also thought to contain oil deposits. These islands are being claimed by both China and Japan because it lies northeast of Taiwan, east of China and southwest of Japan's city Okinawa.
The Senkaku islands are now under the control of Japan. After the
World War II US trusteeship took over these islands but they returned it to Japan in 1971. Then they surveyed it for ten years and discovered that they are uninhibited, and formally merged the Islands into Japanese territory. Now, Japan says that China and Taiwan have started claiming that, the Islands belongs to their country only after the issue of oil resources in that area, prior to that they never raised any objection on the San Francisco deal.
Whereas China claims that Diaoyu islands were the part of their territory since ancient times, which served as an important fishing ground to the province of Taiwan. After the Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded by Japan, but it was returned back in the Treaty of San Francisco. Now, China claims that as the island was a part of Taiwan, it should also have been returned.
The latest dispute began when right-wing Japanese politician pledged to buy the the Senkaku islands or the Diaoyu islands from a private owner, in order to protect it from Chinese encroachment. And the Japanese government purchased the island for 2.05 billion dollars last week. Looking at this the Chinese government sent the patrol ships near the island, and now the government has started the protest against Japan.
China is Japan's largest trading partner and Japan is China’s second-biggest trading partner, largest outside investor and has employed about 10 million Chinese, says Japan’s Finance Ministry. So, both the countries are inter-dependent and this protest will affect the economies of both the countries, reportedThe New York Times.
