Contending Nationalisms and the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Dispute

1 For a discussion of earlier disputes see Phil Deans, `The Senkaku/Diaoyutai Controversy: The Unwanted Dispute', Kent Papers in Politics and International Relations, vol. 6, 1996. The full text of this paper can be found at http://snipe.ukc.ac.uk/international/papers.dir/deans.html

2 See Kim Byung-chin, `The Northeast Asian Continental Shelf Controversy: A Case Study in Conflict Resolution Among South Korea, Japan, China (PRC) and Taiwan', PhD thesis, Florida State University, 1980, p. 164, note 50.

3 A useful summary of the legal dimensions of the dispute, slightly favouring the Japanese claim, can be found in Greg Austin, China's Ocean Frontier: International Law, Military Force and National Development (Canberra: Allen and Unwin, 1998), pp. 162-176. See also the Proceedings of the International Law Conference on the Dispute Over Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands [sic], edited by the Taiwan Law Society and Taiwan Institute of International Law, April 1997.

4 See Chih-yu Shih, `Defining Japan: the Nationalist Assumption in China's Foreign Policy', International Journal, vol. 50, no. 3, Summer 1995, pp. 539-563; and Allen S. Whiting, China Eyes Japan (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989). This is not unique to the PRC; a similar pattern can be found in both the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Interestingly, Taiwanese nationalism does not fit this pattern; see Phil Deans, `Taiwanese Perceptions of Japan's Role in Asia', paper presented at the ISA/ECPR Conference, Vienna, September 1998.

5 Suisheng Zhao, `Chinese Intellectuals' Quest for Greatness', China Quarterly, no. 152, December 1997, pp. 725-745, on p. 725.

6 Song Qiang, Zhang Zangzang & Qiao Bian, Zhongguo keyi shuo bu [The China that Can Say No] (Hong Kong: Mingbao, 1996).

7 Symptomatic of this trend is a work cited by the Chinese leadership as promoting the `China threat' thesis: Richard Bernstein & Ross H. Munro, The Coming Conflict with China (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997).

8 Maria Hsia Chang & Xiaoyu Chen, `The Nationalist Ideology of the Chinese Military', The Journal of Strategic Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, March 1998, pp. 44-64, p. 60.

9 It is one of the ironies of Chinese nationalism that the title of the book is derived from Ishihara Shintaro, the Japanese nationalist author of The Japan that Can Say `No'.

10 Zhongguo Keyi Shuo Bu, cited in Geoffrey Murray, China: The Next Superpower (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1998), p. 183.

11 Song Qiang, Zhang Zangzang, Qiao Bian, Yang Zhenyu & Gu Qingsheng, Zhongguo haishi neng shuo bu [The China that Can Still Say No] (Hong Kong: Mingbao, 1997) (see pp. 80-83 for the discussion of the Diaoyutai).

12 Wang Junyan, Jingti Riben: zuori de qinlüe yu jinri de kuozhang (Hohehote: Inner Mongolia Press, 1996).

13 See David A. Kelly, `The Chinese Student Movement of December 1986 and Its Intellectual Antecedents', Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, no. 17, January 1988, pp. 127-142, on p. 142.

14 For background to the 1978 dispute, see Chae-jin Lee, Japan faces China: Political and Economic Relations in the Post-war Era (Baltimore, MD & London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), and Daniel Tretiak, `The Sino-Japanese Treaty of 1978: The Senkaku Incident Prelude', Asian Survey, vol. 18, no. 12, December 1978, pp. 1235-1249.

15 The Shrine is Japan's key memorial to those who died in the wars of the first half of the 20th century. However, official Japanese visits to the Shrine are extremely controversial as it also commemorates Japanese war criminals such as Tojo Hideki; any official visit is regarded by other Asian observers as evidence that Japan is disregarding the significance of history.

16 Ming Pao report in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB) FE/2716 G/2, 13 September 1996.

17 Erica Strecker Downs & Philip C. Saunders, `Legitimacy and the Limits of Nationalism: China and the Diaoyu Islands', International Security, vol. 23, no. 3, Winter 1998-99, pp. 114-146.

18 Allen S. Whiting, `Chinese Nationalism and Foreign Policy after Deng', China Quarterly, no. 142, June 1995, pp. 195-316, on p. 315.

19 For commentary see SWB FE/2718 F/116 September 1996; for the full text of the article see SWB FE/2718 S1-11, 16 September 1996.

20 Ming Pao report in SWB FE/2716 G/2, 13 September 1996.

21 Ming Pao report in SWB FE/2717 G3, 14 September 1996.

22 Renmin Ribao, 19 September 1996, in SWB FE/2721 G/3.

23 See Phil Deans, `Contested Sovereignty: The Impact of Political Change on Taiwan on the China Policy of the Major Countries of the Asia-Pacific Region', paper presented at Centre d'Études Français sur la Chine Contemporaine, Institut Français des Relations Internationales and the Institute for National Policy Research Conference: The Development of Contemporary Taiwan and its Implications for Cross-Strait Relations, The Asia-Pacific Region and Europe, 16-17 December 1998.

24 Renmin Ribao, 1 October 1996.

25 An example of this changing mood can perhaps also be seen in the strongly nationalist film about Tojo Hideki, Pride - The Fateful Moment.

26 It is characteristic of Ishihara's maverick nature that these comments appeared in the US edition of Playboy (October 1990). They were subsequently repeated in the Japanese edition.

27 Greg Austin & Stuart Harris, Japan and Greater China: Political Economy and Military Power in the Asian Century, ch. 2 (London: C. Hurst & Co., forthcoming).

28 Ibid.

29 Edo Yusuke, Senkaku Shima: do suru Nihon [The Senkaku Islands: What Should Japan Do?] (Tokyo: Kotomo Shuppan, 1996.

30 The Renmin Ribao (18 October 1996) argued that `the [Japanese government's] non-interference in such activities is equivalent to a signal of a continued green light to the right-wing groups.'

31 The Tokyo headquarters and several regional branch offices of the Seinensha were raided by the police searching for firearms on 1 October 1996, see SWB FE/2734 E/1, 2 October 1996.

32 Even the Japan Communist Party (Nihon Kyosanto), a bitter critic of almost any nationalist/expansionist agenda, strongly maintains that the Senkaku belong to Japan. See `Senkaku Shoto o meguru mondai to kaiketsu no tenbo' [A Perspective on Solutions to the Senkaku Question], Akahata, 22 September 1996.

33 Based on Lesley Connors, `A New Nationalism in Japan: An Interim Report on Fieldwork', Leeds East Asia Papers, no. 57, University of Leeds, 1997.

34 There is an extensive literature on Taiwanese consciousness. For contrasting views see Tu Weiming, `Cultural Identity and the Politics of Recognition in Contemporary Taiwan', in David Shambaugh, ed., Contemporary Taiwan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 71-96, and Hai Ren, `Taiwan and the Impossibility of the Chinese', in Melissa J Brown, ed., Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan (Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1996), pp. 75-97.

35 Simon Long, Taiwan: China's Island Frontier (London: Macmillan, 1991), p. 68. For a detailed analysis of the `Protect the Diaoyutai Movement', see Xinxinwen [The Journalist], 29 October-4 November 1990, pp. 32-36, p. 47.

36 The Independent (London), 22 October 1990.

37 See Far Eastern Economic Review [FEER], 1 November 1990, pp. 19-20. This opinion is supported by interviews conducted by the author in Tokyo, February 1993.

38 The China Post, 26 October 1990.

39 See The Economist, 3 November 1990, pp. 76-77.

40 For a study of Taiwan's complex attitudes toward Japan, see Deans (note 4).

41 Shen Guofang, the PRC's foreign affairs spokesman, said that US comments were `unnecessary', SWB FE/2717 G/4, 14 September 1996.