China - China urged to face Philippines at UN tribunal

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A senior U.S. lawmaker says China should agree to face the Philippines before a U.N. arbitration tribunal to resolve the two Asian countries’ territorial rifts peacefully and avoid a crisis in the region.

The Philippines announced last week that it was bringing a case before a U.N. arbitration tribunal to challenge China’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, including potentially oil-rich areas. China has not responded clearly, but one of its diplomats has pressed Beijing’s demand that rival claimants resolve the disputes through one-on-one negotiations.

Rep. Edward Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it’s best for China to agree to the international arbitration to avoid a possible “crisis which roils the markets or creates uncertainty” in the region.

AP News

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China - China says US culpable in Japan island dispute

BEIJING (AP) — China said Monday that the U.S. has “undeniable historical responsibility” in Beijing’s dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea, marking the second straight day that it has pinned some of the blame for the tensions on Washington.

While Beijing has not asked for outside mediation, its references to the U.S. appear to be an attempt to prompt Washington to use its influence to soften the stance of Japan, which has steadfastly refused to hold talks over the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.

Japan argues that it has sovereignty over the islands and therefore there is nothing to negotiate. They were under U.S. control between 1945 and 1972, when they were returned to Japan, which originally annexed them in 1895. China claims sovereignty over the islands, as does Taiwan.

Washington acknowledges that the islands are under Japanese administration but doesn’t take a position on who owns them. Beijing has repeatedly accused the U.S. of emboldening Tokyo by supporting its control over the islands and stating that any conflict over them would trigger the U.S.-Japan mutual defense pact.

“The U.S. bears undeniable historical responsibility,” on the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular news conference Monday. “The U.S. comments ignore facts and confuse truth with untruth. China is strongly displeased and firmly opposed to it.”

Tensions between Beijing and Tokyo soared in recent months after Japan’s government bought the islands from private Japanese owners in September.

On Sunday, another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman strongly criticized the U.S. over remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterating longstanding U.S. policy and opposing unilateral actions that would undermine Japan’s administration of the islands.

Since September, China has repeatedly sent government patrol boats to confront Japanese coast guard ships in waters surrounding the islands and earlier this month scrambled fighter jets to tail Japanese fighters that were shadowing a Chinese patrol plane.

Such actions have raised fears that an accident or miscalculation could result in a clash. China has in its recent comments stressed the need for calm and the start of talks on the issue. Japan has also reached out, with China-friendly former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama paying a visit last week, although it refuses to meet Chinese demands that it concede that the islands are in dispute.

In his comments, Hong said Beijing remains unswerving in its determination to assert its sovereignty, but that China and Japan were in contact on ways to ease tensions.

He urged U.S. officials to “responsibly treat the Diaoyu issue, watch their words and deeds, maintain regional stability and Sino-U.S. relations, so that the Chinese people can trust them.”

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Asia - Could the Senkaku/Daoyus Drag Asia into a War?

Probably not. But there will be plenty of sturm und drang

Could the standoff "over something intrinsically worthless - the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands," drag Japan, China and the United States into a war?

"It seems almost laughably unthinkable that the world's three richest countries - two of them nuclear-armed - would go to war over something so trivial," wrote Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at Australian National University, in a recent op-ed article in the Sydney Morning Herald. "But that is to confuse what starts a war with what causes it. The Greek historian Thucydides first explained the difference almost 2,500 years ago. He wrote that the catastrophic Peloponnesian War started from a spat between Athens and one of Sparta's allies over a relatively insignificant dispute. But what caused the war was something much graver: the growing wealth and power of Athens, and the fear this caused in Sparta."

White calls the analogy with Asia today "uncomfortably close and not at all reassuring. No one in 431BC really wanted a war, but when Athens threatened one of Sparta's allies over a disputed colony, the Spartans felt they had to intervene. They feared that to step back in the face of Athens' growing power would fatally compromise Sparta's position in the Greek world, and concede supremacy to Athens."

That analogy assumes that China, its economic and military power growing exponentially over the past two decades, is beginning to feel obstreperous enough to take on the greatest military power on the globe.

Ehsan Ehrari, the author of a new book, The Great Powers vs the Hegemon, published in 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan, cites statistics that probably indicate China is more circumspect than the overheated rhetoric would have us believe. The United States accounts for 46.5 percent of the entire world military spending budget, he points out. China today accounts for an estimated 6.8 percent.

Ahrari, the author of 11 books, is a veteran defense consultant who formerly taught at the National Defense University's Joint Forces Staff College is a Professor of West Asian Studies at the US Air War College. He also lectures at the NATO School, the George C. Marshall Center, and the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Civil-Military Relations and is a regular contributor to Asia Sentinel.

China, has every intention of becoming a superpower, Ahrari points out in his analysis, a 266-page study of the great-power competition between not just the US and China but also with India, seeking to grow into a great power, and Russia, seeking to regain its global standing. "Neither the United States nor China is convinced that the competitive aspect of their mutual ties - it is competitive because they are both great powers, one of them is the superpower and the other wishes to be, and the lone superpower wishes to have no proto-peer - will remain so for the foreseeable future."

White, in his op-ed piece, says the Senkaku issue is "likewise a symptom of tensions whose cause lies elsewhere, in China's growing challenge to America's long-standing leadership in Asia, and America's response. In the past few years China has become both markedly stronger and notably more assertive. America has countered with the strategic pivot to Asia. Now China is pushing back against President Barack Obama's pivot by targeting Japan in the Senkakus.

As White points out, the Japanese themselves genuinely fear that China will become even more overbearing as its strength grows, and they depend on America to protect them. But, Aharari writes, "US-China relations are driven by constant apprehension on the part of the lone superpower regarding the true intentions underlying china's rise. For its part, has been equally concerned about calming America's anxieties."

All of the littoral states surrounding the South China Sea are concerned about US staying power in the event of chinese assertiveness. The Obama "pivot," the growing assertiveness of the US to keep its military potentially in harm's way, is meant to answer those concerns. In 1997, as China furiously rattled its rockets at Taiwan, "test-firing" missiles near the island, US President Bill Clinton responded by sending the US Seventh Fleet down the 160-km-wide Strait of Taiwan. Whether China felt it had made its point, or whether the presence of the world's most formidable navy was intimidating, the test firing stopped. Certainly, it is questionable if the US could pull off that stunt again.

In last fall's furious protests in China over the Japanese response on the Senkaku/Diaoyus, Japanese cars were trashed, businesses were intimidated, boycotts were instituted against Japanese products. But the US presence and pivot was never a part of the equation.

The risk, White writes, "is that, without a clear circuit-breaker, the escalation will continue until at some point shots are exchanged, and a spiral to war begins that no one can stop. Neither side could win such a war, and it would be devastating not just for them but for the rest of us. No one wants this, but the crisis will not stop by itself. One side or other, or both, will have to take positive steps to break the cycle of action and reaction. This will be difficult, because any concession by either side would so easily be seen as a backdown, with huge domestic political costs and international implications."

Beijing, he continues, "apparently believes that if it keeps pushing, Washington will persuade Tokyo to make concessions over the disputed islands in order to avoid being dragged into a war with China, which would be a big win for them. Tokyo on the other hand fervently hopes that, faced with firm US support for Japan, China will have no choice but to back down."

But, Ahrari says, Deng Xiaoping's decision to get China involved in a global economic interaction started a process of transformation of that country into a "manufacturing juggernaut." China in the 21st century, he points out, "has developed an enormous stake in the smooth functioning of global economic institutions and has been comfortable with the exercise of ‘system maintenance' at the global level."

Thus, he feels, China may rattle its rockets again, as it did in September and October. But it will rattle them with a purpose. Intimidation, not only of Japan but of all of the countries on the edges of the South China Sea and Taiwan may feel the dragon's hot breath. But hopefully the teeth will remain sheathed.

http://www.asiasentinel.com

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China - Do the Chinese Now Claim the Ryukyus?

Next step. Hawaii

A few weeks ago Asia Sentinel pointed out that China’s newfound focus on its longstanding claim to the disputed Senkaku/Dioayu rocks were the thin end of a wedge aimed at a much bigger if dormant claim – to Japan’s Ryukyu islands, which include Okinawa and stretch 1,000 kilometers along the divide between the east China sea and the Pacific Ocean.

Now the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post has, perhaps unwittingly, become identified with this claim. It devotes a whole page of its Dec. 4 edition to explaining to its readers why China regards the barren, uninhabited rocks as of such major importance to China.

It is no coincidence that a primary source for the story is Major General Luo Yuan, a PLA strategist who says that China’s “security and development” are at stake. For sure it helps drum up nationalist support by claiming that that economic potential is vastly greater than is actually the case.

The story accompanies this attempt with a map which appears to show China’s claims extending over the Ryukyu Islands up to the trench which divides them from the deep Pacific. Yet nowhere in the article is there any mention of the Ryukyus, their place on the map being taken up by blobs representing supposed oil and gas fields.

The whole tenor of the article, by the SCMP’s Beijing correspondent Cary Huang, is that the Senkakus are the key to ownership of a vast area that is immensely rich not just in oil and gas and fish but cobalt and manganese nodules. According to the report, “The oil and natural gas reserves of the East China Sea will be enough to meet China’s needs for at least 80 years.” There was also “enough manganese in the waters near the Diaoyus to meet Japan’s needs for 320 years, enough cobalt for 1,300 years, enough nickel for 100 years and enough natural gas for 100 years not to mention other mineral resources and plentiful fish.”

The reporter did not stop to ask why if the East China sea is so rich why neither China nor Japan have done almost nothing to exploit the mineral resources which supposedly lie in the those parts of the sea (by far the majority) which are not in dispute. It is not as though the sea is especially deep or otherwise difficult to explore. Nowhere west of the Okinawa depression is it more than 200 feet deep. As for fish, the reporter is apparently unaware of just how depleted fish stocks are already and cry out for conservation measures.

The importance attached to manganese and nickel nodules is also a bit of nonsense. Sure these exist in this as in various other sea beds. But the cost of extraction is huge compared with land based sources. These are not rare elements on the earth’s surface and China is already the world’s largest producer of manganese. So why make exaggerated for the Senkaku/Diaoyu?

The geographical importance of the Senkaku/Diaoyus is also vastly exaggerated by the article. The fact that the rocks are currently under Japanese control does not in itself validate the whole Japanese seabed claim which rests on a different definition of the continental shelf than that advanced by China. The Senkaku/Diaoyu lie on the continental shelf by any definition but that does not imply the validity of Japan’s seabed claim. These rocks have long been uninhabited so they have scant claim to their own 200-miles EEZ.

If the various claims were put to the International Court in The Hague (where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have allowed such conflicts to be settled) it is quite possible that Japan’s claim to the Senkakus would be supported on historical grounds while China’s definition of the continental shelf would be recognized over that of Japan.

But China resists any form of international arbitration on its sea disputes, either with Japan or with the littoral states of the South China sea despite its strong case in respect of the East China sea continental shelf. Indeed, by keeping these issues alive it can leave the issue of the Ryukyus quietly on the table. These islands were once an independent tributary of both China and Japan. So vaguely drawn maps such as that in the South China Morning Post and imaginative stories of seabed riches enable China to use the Senkaku/Diaoyu rocks to broaden the international issue and incite nationalist fervor.

http://www.asiasentinel.com

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Philippines - Philippines urges China to listen to 'voice of international community'

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said that it hoped that China would listen to the “voice of international community” after it sought Beijing’s clarification of a reported plan to board foreign ships sailing through what it claims to be its territory in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

In a press conference, DFA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez noted that since April, the DFA had been talking with China “and doing up formal consultations for thirty-six times already” so that the issue of the disputes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) could be resolved peacefully using international law.

“We have also been using the offices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and of the other international fora to bring this matter to China so that this could be resolved peacefully in accordance with international law and we are hoping that China would listen to the voice of the international community,” Hernandez said.

When pressed by reporters if the department expected an answer from China, Hernandez said: “We are a responsible member of the international community, and China is also expected to be a responsible member of the community of nations so we expect that and we are hoping that they would clarify this issue not only with the Philippines but with the community of nations.”

Chinese state media had reported that new rules, which would come into effect January 1, would allow police in the Southern Province of Hainan to board and seize control of “foreign vessels that illegally enter Chinese waters”.

The DFA had earlier said that it sent a note verbale to the Chinese embassy in Manila seeking clarification of the reported plan, saying that if confirmed to be accurate, it should be “condemned by the international community as it violates maritime domains of countries in the region and impede freedom of navigation”.

“If media reports are accurate, this planned action by China is illegal and will validate the continuous and repeated pronouncements by the Philippines that China’s claim of indisputable sovereignty over virtually the entire South China Sea is not only an excessive claim but a threat to all countries,” the DFA said in an earlier statement.

Hernandez, in the press conference, noted that China had yet to issue a reply to the note verbale but that the DFA had also made representations with the Chinese foreign ministry through the country’s embassy in Beijing and that “we’re hoping that they would reply as soon as possible”.

Aside from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim all or part of the territories in these waters, which are believed to be rich in oil, mineral and marine resources.

Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan had also expressed concern over China’s latest move, saying it was an escalation of tensions in the region and was a cause of “great anxiety” among disputing parties.

China, meanwhile, sought to dispel tensions, with a foreign ministry spokesperson saying that Beijing paid importance to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

“The navigation freedom countries enjoy in the South China Sea according to international law should be protected. China attaches importance to maintaining navigation freedom in the South China Sea. There is no problem with it,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei told a Chinese press conference on November 30.

When asked about the issue, Hong Lei said that China “carries out maritime management according to international and domestic laws”.

“On the issue of the South China Sea, it is China’s clear and consistent position to safeguard national territorial sovereignty and rights and interests. We are also committed to solving disputes with our neighbours through friendly consultation and negotiation,” he said.

Fat Reyes

Philippine Daily Inquirer

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China – Commentary: China's Nine-dashed line Problematic Passport

China's intention to print new passports depicting its ownership of disputed maritime territories in the South China Sea has riled its neighbors.

If China was looking for a reaction, they have most certainly received one. After printing new passports containing a map of the disputed South China Sea territories as Chinese possessions, officials in Vietnam and the Philippines have wasted little time in protesting the move.

However, Beijing’s move has not only offended neighboring Southeast Asian nations, but India and Taiwan as well. In addition to the nine-dash line claims, China’s new map also contains the Arunachal Pradesh state and the Aksai Chin region disputed with India, and all of Taiwan.

In light of this development, I wondered what would happen if my neighbor had come to my house with a piece of paper that said they now owned a portion of my lawn. I would, of course, laugh at their rather humorous attempt at annexation and turn them away; and if they should begin installing a rose garden and lawn gnomes… Well, I might keep the garden but the gnomes would have to go.

It is hard not to a laugh at what, on the surface, appears to be a non-issue. If China wants to print a map of territories it doesn’t legally own, why should anyone complain? After all, just because China has a picture of the disputed territories does not mean it owns them. Imagine if I took a photo of someone’s Porsche or Lamborghini and then approached the owner, saying, “I have a picture of this very car, therefore it is now mine.” The owner would simply roll his or her eyes and then promptly tell me to get lost.

Except that a passport is not a simple photograph, and the disputed islands in question are not sports cars. In the scenario of the Porsche/Lamborghini, there exists an authoritative body to determine ownership (besides the owner holding the car title). Within countries, disputes can sometimes be settled informally in person, sometimes with a police officer presiding over the dispute. However, most often it is the court system that will settle serious matters. Particularly nasty custody battles over a child are handled by courts, for example.

In the matter of disputed territories, however, no such authoritative body exists.

Acquiescence from others

The United Nations does not have the ability to force China to stop. For countries like Sweden or Switzerland or Mexico, with no particular stake in the South China Sea disputes, stamping the new Chinese passport will change nothing. For claimant states in the disputes, however, to stamp the passport is to accept Chinese ownership of the territories.

Yet, as Vietnam and the Philippines are acutely aware, should third party nations like Sweden, Switzerland or Mexico acknowledge or ignore the new changes with China’s passport, and should they and other nations proceed to stamp the passport, it would over time also mean acceptance of China’s territorial claims. To do nothing would have the same effect as agreeing.

For India, the passport map has threatened relations between New Delhi and Beijing. Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin were scenes of the Sino-Indian War in 1962, which, although they saw a Chinese victory, resulted in some measure of peace between China and India after the dust settled. By issuing the new passport map, what has China accomplished but reigniting old disputes with India?

For Southeast Asian nations, the situation is dire. They cannot prevent China from printing their passports or prevent foreign customs agents from stamping them and they do not possess the same clout as India. For Vietnam, the Philippines, and other claimant states, simply raising one’s voice will not suffice.

Seeking a solution

What, then, is there for an aggrieved country to do? Looking to the International Court of Justice would be a waste of time, for China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, would simply veto any attempt to enforce an unfavorable ruling. Without a supreme authoritative body to render and enforce judgment, the plaintiff—in this case, the claimant states—will have little choice but to resolve this matter on their own.

Knowing this, how can claimant states respond? A very literal shot across the bow would attract Beijing’s attention; however, a shooting war should be at the bottom of a very long list of last resort options. Although both Vietnam and the Philippines have come to blows with China in the past, neither they nor China at present have any desire to engage in a military conflict. Although a direct engagement would favor China, Beijing knows that such a scenario would serve to invite immediate American intervention.

Could claimant states refuse entry to Chinese citizens? Sure, leaders in Vietnam, the Philippines, and other claimant states can turn away Chinese citizens holding the new passport; however, to do so would be at great financial cost. The loss of tourists, workers, and businesses would be felt almost immediately. More importantly, for claimant states to turn away the new passports will do nothing to address other countries stamping the passport.

So, what then? When the threat of war is removed from the table and diplomacy runs its course, what else can they do? Well—and perhaps such a thought is now being entertained by officials from claimant states—why not print new passports with claims to the disputed territories? If it is possible for China to make such a claim using such a tactic, is it not possible for others to do the same? One can imagine a Vietnamese or Filipino public servant saying, “Why don’t we just print new passports saying we own the area, too?”

If Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other claimant states were to begin printing passports with the same claims to the same disputed territories, and if these passports are stamped as their holders travel the world, it would render China’s claim moot. China and the claimant states will have found themselves returned to square one, all declaring ownership over the same area. After all, whose claim is more legitimate if they all declare the same thing, and if their claims, through the actions (or inaction) of the international community, are equally accepted?

For its part, India has done just that by issuing new visas depicting the Arunachal Pradesh state and the Aksai Chin region as belonging to it. Although Beijing has not yet responded to New Delhi’s counter, what is clear is that India has refused to be bullied. Whether the Southeast Asian nations involved in the maritime disputes with China can or will follow suit remains to be seen.

A non-conditional and permanent resolution

Of course, none of this needs to happen. It is quite possible that someone high up in the Chinese leadership decides to backtrack from the new passport. Regardless of the outcome, however, this episode--merely one in a long list of many—has highlighted and reinforced the need to resolve the disputes.

Unfortunately, infighting, indecisiveness, and inaction have so far plagued the South China Sea disputes and prevented serious inroads towards a peaceful resolution. China is comfortable playing games and planning for the road ahead. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and other claimant states have continued to bluster, which has had the effect of accomplishing little. China is comfortable in its place. They possess the ways and means to state their case. The claimant states do not.

As long as the claimant states continue to react to China, the South China Sea disputes will simply escalate. Today the disagreement is over passports. Tomorrow the disagreement may be over something less humorous. It is easy to laugh over a dispute over some picture in a passport, but tomorrow it may very well be military installations on an island. And then what happens next?

It is time for China and claimant states to put an end to these games. A conditional resolution is not a permanent resolution. The notion of losing face is, to be blunt, archaic and useless in this ever volatile situation. Wars have been fought for less, and wars have already been fought over some of the disputed territories.

If there is to be a non-conditional, permanent resolution to the maritime disputes in the South China Sea then all parties involved must be willing to deal with the matter directly. To state a claim as China did, and in so childish a manner, only harms its relationship with its neighbors and the international community, and fails to address the core issues of the disputes.

The borders along India, the question of Taiwan, and the South China Sea are not problems that Beijing can determine unilaterally. If China wants its neighbors and the world to respect its rise, it must also respect the concerns of others.

Khanh Vu Duc

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Singapore - Don't underestimate' territorial disputes

SINGAPORE - Political leaders in the region should not underestimate the risks and consequences of the South China Sea territorial disputes, said Foreign Minister K Shanmugam as he warned that the issue could be complicated by the rise of nationalism in several claimant states.

Nevertheless, Mr Shanmugam said there is a "broad degree of recognition" that these issues must be dealt with "in a way that preserves peace and harmony".

Speaking in an interview with Channel NewsAsia ahead of the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh this weekend, Mr Shanmugam said: "We cannot underestimate the risks because these are territorial claims. It is played out against the backdrop of potentially large mineral carbon resources and a serious complicating factor, the rise of nationalism in the context of these claims in many of the countries involved."

He added: "So it is not easy for the political leaders even if they wanted to make rational decisions ... Often there is a risk that decisions could be influenced or even dominated by domestic public opinion that's risky for all of us."

Mr Shanmugam said he "cannot predict any outcome because that would be more of an expression of hope".

"What I can say is all of us, including the non-claimant states, recognise the need to try and do something to make sure that peace and harmony is preserved," said Mr Shanmugam.

"We are taking a number of steps, talking to each other, senior officials have met ... There is an understanding of what needs to be achieved, there are sometimes disagreements on how it needs to be achieved."

Obama's re-election and what it means for ASEAN

The Association of South-east Asian Nations' ties with the United States will also be entering their 35th year. Mr Shanmugam said President Barack Obama's re-election means a continuity of policies that are in place.

Mr Obama will be at the ASEAN Summit for the ASEAN-US Leaders session on Nov 19. He is also due to visit several ASEAN member countries, including Thailand and Myanmar, during his Asian tour.

Mr Shanmugam said: "The US has taken a number of steps to always engage the region and we have always suggested and said, publicly, and to the US privately, the engagement has got to be constructive. The economic engagement is important and we encourage that. Their security presence has also preserved peace and harmony in the region. So we can see some continuity in the policies."

Outgoing ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan recently said that the ASEAN Economic Community Target of 2015 may be difficult to achieve. Agreeing that it is a "stretched target", Mr Shanmugam said: "But at least we are working towards the target ... If you look at it economically, tariffs have come down substantially. There is a greater movement towards freer trade in goods and services. I think we can say we have made progress."

The summit will also see a new ASEAN Secretary-General, Vietnam's Deputy Foreign Minister Le Luong Minh. Adding that he believes the incoming Secretary-General will do a good job, Mr Shanmugam noted that the changeover comes at a crucial time, with ASEAN facing a number of economic, political and strategic issues.

S RAMESH

http://www.todayonline.com/

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Japan - Japan PM Noda says no compromise on islands' sovereignty

UNITED NATIONS: Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda insisted on Wednesday there could be no compromise with China on the ownership of a disputed island chain and denounced attacks on Japanese interests.

Speaking to reporters at the UN General Assembly in New York, Noda said China misunderstands the issues at stake and demanded an end to threats against Japanese citizens and business interests in China by protesters.

"So far as the Senkaku islands are concerned, they are an integral part of our territory in the light of history and of international law," Noda said, referring to an archipelago in the East China Sea that China knows as Diaoyu.

"It is very clear and there are no territorial issues as such. Therefore there cannot be any compromise that could mean any setback from this basic position. I have to make that very clear," he told reporters.

"The resolution of this issue should not be by force, but calmly, through reason and with respect for international war."

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his Japanese counterpart Koichiro Gemba at the United Nations on Tuesday that Japan had been guilty of "severely infringing" its sovereignty, according to Beijing's foreign ministry.

"The Chinese side will by no means tolerate any unilateral action by the Japanese side on the Diaoyu Islands," Yang told Gemba, according to his office.

A Japanese official in New York confirmed to AFP that the talks had been "severe," but noted the two sides had agreed to maintain a dialogue.

The dispute erupted into an angry war of words between Beijing and Tokyo after the Japanese government took the previously privately-held islands into public ownership, but Noda insisted this move had been misinterpreted.

"Part of the Senkaku islands that was held by a private citizen was transferred to governmental possession in order to ensure the stable management of it," he said, according to an official translation.

"It is not a new acquisition. It was held under the private ownership of a Japanese citizen and was a transfer of ownership within Japanese law," he said, adding: "We have explained this to China at length."

"But it seems that China has yet to understand that and because of that lack of understanding, there has been an attack or acts of violence and destruction against Japanese citizens and property there," he complained.

"And we have conveyed clearly that in any circumstances violence is not to be condoned, and we strongly demanded China accord protection to Japanese citizens and property there," he added.

The attacks on Japanese factories and businesses have ostensibly been carried out spontaneously by crowds, but such protests are usually tightly policed in China, leading to suspicions of official collusion.

Noda refused to be drawn on whether Japan would demand compensation from China for the damage, but the economic toll of the dispute between two of the world's biggest trading partners is mounting daily.

Shortly before the Japanese premier spoke, Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) revealed that 40,000 reservations had been cancelled on its Japan-China flights until November.

Japanese auto giants Toyota and Nissan said they would cut production in China because demand for Japanese cars has been hit by the row.

Japanese envoys in New York said they could see no reason why sovereignty over the islands should be in doubt, but Noda said Japan would be confident of victory if the case were referred to the International Court of Justice.

The Japanese delegation provided reporters with copies of documents that it said supported Tokyo's claim to the islands, including copies of Chinese maps from 1932 and 1960 that mark them as Japanese territory.

In a complicated three-way dispute, Taiwan also claims ownership of the chain. South Korea and Japan, meanwhile, dispute the sovereignty of another island, known in Japan as Takeshima, but administered from Seoul and known as Dokdo in Korean.

Chinese government ships have sailed into waters around the disputed islands in recent days in an apparent bid to assert sovereignty, but there was no sign of them in the area on Wednesday, according to Japanese coast guards.

And on Tuesday, coast guard vessels from Japan and Taiwan duelled with water cannon after dozens of Taiwanese fishing boats escorted by patrol ships sailed into waters around the Tokyo-controlled islands for several hours.

- AFP/de/xq

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China - China to submit claims of continental shelf to UN

Protests likely to continue as key wartime memorial day looms

Beijing announced yesterday it will submit a partial submission concerning the outer limits of the continental shelf to the United Nations in its latest move to defend its maritime sovereignty.

The move came as the Japanese prime minister vowed to take the Diaoyu Islands (known in Japan as Senkaku Islands) dispute to the UN General Assembly.

Beijing is calling for people to express their demands in a "legal and rational way".

Protests against Japan broke out across China over the weekend in what observers described as the largest demonstrations against Japan in China since 1972 when diplomatic relations were normalised.

Experts said the protests could continue for days. Tuesday, Sept. 18, is a memorial day marking Japan's wartime occupation of parts of China.

The Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that China has decided to submit its Partial Submission Concerning the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles in the East China Sea to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The ministry said technical preparations for the State Oceanic Administration's submission "are close to completion".

According to the convention, if the continental shelf of a coastal state extends more than 200 nautical miles, information on the limits of the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles shall be submitted by the coastal state to the commission.

Zhang Haiwen, deputy director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs, said China's decision to submit the outer limits of the continental shelf in the East China Sea to the UN is both a commitment and a counter-measure.

"China has kept its promise, made in 2009, that it would offer a submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea at an appropriate date. Now, since preparations are close to being completed and tensions over the Diaoyu Islands are escalating, China has announced the decision," Zhang explained.

The move came one day after the SOA announced the exact longitude and latitude of Diaoyu Island and 70 of its affiliated islets while publishing location maps, three-dimension graphs and a sketch map for the islands.

On Sept 10, the government announced the coordinates of the territorial waters of Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets, as well as the names and coordinates of 17 base points, after Tokyo said it decided to "purchase" three of the Diaoyu Islands that day.

China has filed a copy of the government's Diaoyu Islands baseline announcement to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Kyodo news agency in Japan reported yesterday that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda plans to stress the importance of handling territorial issues in accordance with the "rule of law" during the UN General Assembly later this month, if he wins, as is expected, the Democratic Party of Japan's leadership race scheduled for Sept. 21.

However, to avoid his UN speech "inciting antagonism", Noda will avoid using the Japanese names of the Diaoyu Islands and the islands over which Japan and South Korea are in dispute, it said.

Sunday also marked the resumption of activities by Chinese fishermen after months of recess.

Chinese trawlers have been disrupted in their work by Japan for a number of years.

In September 2010, a Chinese trawler collided with Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats near the islands. The collision, and Japan's subsequent detention of the trawler captain, resulted in a major diplomatic dispute between the two nations.

Six Chinese surveillance ships have started patrolling waters around the Diaoyu Islands, that belong to China, since Friday morning.

Angry protesters against Japan's provocations took to the streets in Beijing and many other cities yesterday.

The emotions have spilled abroad, with more than 10,000 Chinese people rallying in Los Angeles to protest against Japan. The organisers said such protests are expected to spread in North America.

There have been reports of damage to Japanese cars, Japanese supermarkets being targeted and attacks against Japanese companies in some Chinese cities.

The isolated attacks immediately prompted calls for calm and a more rational approach, and warnings from the authorities against breaking the law.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei had said on Friday that the protests were not directed at the Japanese people.

"The rights of Japanese citizens in China are protected under law. And we ask Chinese citizens to express their demands in a legal and rational way," Hong said.

"Raging expressions of patriotism will only bring joy to the [Japanese] evil doers, put our foreign policy on the defensive and wound the feelings of compatriots," the official People's Daily, the Communist Party's main paper, said in a website commentary yesterday.

Noticeably, Noda said yesterday the other pillar of his policy is "level-headedness".

"It is important to remember that we are the world's second and third-largest economies, and growth in China means opportunities for Japan," he said.

Rana Mitter, professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at Oxford University, said the US does not want a crisis just ahead of November's election.

David Fouquet, senior associate at the European Institute for Asian Studies, said others outside the region should refrain from any involvement that could make matters more difficult.

Gao Hong, deputy director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Noda is likely to win the party vote because few people are willing to "take over the mess".

Gao emphasised that China has sufficient historic and legal evidence to prove that the islands are an inherent part of China.

Complicating the situation, Japan's newly designated ambassador to China, Shinichi Nishimiya, 60, died in Tokyo yesterday, Japan's Foreign Ministry said, without specifying.

Nishimiya, who was officially appointed on Tuesday, was taken to hospital after falling ill on a street near his home on Thursday.

Nishimiya had planned to leave for Beijing in October. The government is now considering a replacement from among retired foreign ministry officials, local reports said.

The Diaoyu Islands were illegally seized by Japan at the end of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), but the islands were returned to China in key declarations following the end of World War II.

Li Xiaokun/Wang Chenyan
China Daily

Liu Jia in Brussels and Zhang Chunyan in London and Xinhua contributed to this story.

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Taiwan - In island dispute, Taiwan lacks both carrot and stick

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou paid an inspection visit to Pengjia Islet, or Agincourt, last Friday. His purpose was to emphasise Taiwan's sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai Islands, which the Japanese call the Senkakus and claim as their inherent territory just as China does. The purpose was served.

The sovereignty dispute, which arose after a U.N. survey indicated that there are vast oil reserves under the waters of the tiny uninhabited islets, which the Chinese call the Diaoyu Islands. Tensions are mounting between China and Japan with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's decision to nationalise the Senkaku Islands, three of which ultra-nationalist Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara would like to buy if he could to defend against an imagined imminent Chinese takeover. Taiwan has to do something for self-preservation in the new conflict among the three sovereignty claimants.

That something is the “East China Sea Peace Initiative” Ma proclaimed, coincidentally 60 years after the Peace Treaty of Taipei went into force. Under the treaty, signed on April 28, 1952, Japan renounced Taiwan and its appertaining islands, which were returned to the Republic of China. Ma's initiative calls for shelving the sovereignty dispute in order to jointly develop the Tiaoyutais' resources, but that call fell on deaf ears. So, he flew to Taiwan's northernmost island of Pengjia to announce an action plan to make the East China Sea a sea of peace and prosperity.

Under Ma's action plan, a three-way dialogue is proposed to emerge among Taiwan, Japan and China. He said on Pengjia that there now exist three bilateral dialogue platforms between Taiwan and Japan, China and Taiwan, and Japan and China. If three countries were all in agreement, the three bilateral platforms could be amalgamated into one tripartite dialogue mechanism to negotiate a modus vivendi for their joint development of the resources of the small archipelago, a mere 100 miles northeast of Keelung. As an idea, it sounds just as good and fine as the “East China Sea Peace Initiative.” But neither of them can work.

The tripartite dialogue would be possible, if all three countries were agreed. First of all, they have to agree the sovereignty dispute exists. But all of them insist their sovereignty is indisputable. Taiwan and China would shelve that dispute, but Japan stubbornly reiterates there isn't a dispute that needs to be shelved in the first place.

 Even if Tokyo were persuaded to shelve the sovereignty dispute to get the tripartite dialogue under way, mutual suspicion would doom it to utter failure. Japan would suspect that Taiwan and China might gang up against it. Taiwan doesn't want to appear subordinate to China, which suspects Taipei and Tokyo could make a secret deal to the detriment of its national interests. Taipei would also suspect it might be shunted aside by Tokyo and Beijing that may arrange a similar deal for their mutual benefit.

Nonetheless, this is the best Ma can do under the existing circumstances. China is an emerging bully. Japan is a world power. And the president, under pressure of Taiwan's rising new nationalism, has to make a move to safeguard the sovereignty of the Tiaoyutai Islands in the face of his two formidable adversaries. He can't rattle a sabre that Taiwan doesn't have. Taiwan relies on China and Japan for trade to survive, and Ma cannot afford to threaten an embargo or economic sanctions to make the two adversaries listen. In fact, he cannot resort to anything potent enough for persuading them to treat Taiwan as a party to the dispute on an equal footing.

Between a rock and a hard place, President Ma has chosen the East China Sea Peace Initiative and the trip to Pengjia, which Su Tseng-chang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, has condemned as an act of “making an Ah Q out of himself.” As a matter of fact, it is Ma's only path between Scylla and Charybdis.

Su is now suggesting Ma should call upon the United States to join in a quadripartite dialogue to solve the sovereignty dispute. Apparently, Su does not know Ma is not doing all this to solve the problem, but rather in order just to avoid remaining under fire from Su and company for failure to safeguard Taiwan's inherent territory of the Tiaoyutai Islands.

Editorial Desk 
The China Post

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Philippines - Philippines-China row on hold as Beijing party purge looms

Territorial disputes between China and centre Asian states boiled over at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit last weekend in Vladivostok, formerly the secretive naval base of the Soviet Russian Pacific Fleet, culminating in President Benigno Aquino’s hurried departure on Sunday after failing to hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on deteriorating Philippine-China relations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used the summit as a platform to showcase Russia’s main Pacific port city as its window on the Asia-Pacific as it shifts the weight of its strategic economic and political interests from Europe to the Pacific. But the summit unmasked deep divisions over worsening territorial disputes in the region.

In opening the summit on Saturday, Putin—the post-Soviet Russian czar—called on the 20 Apec heads of state to open up trade among their countries and warned against rising protectionism. But the spectre of territorial rows reared its head to mar the conference. Hu, speaking at a forum of Apec business leaders, echoed Putin’s theme.

“To maintain peace and stability as well as the sound momentum of economic growth in the Asia-Pacific is in the interest of all countries in the region,” Hu said. “It is our shared responsibility.” He went on to call on all to “ensure that tensions did not escalate into serious conflicts.”

Of course, Hu was not calling on China, which is at the centre of the disputes that are churning around the islands, shoals and reefs in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) over which China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims. Hu’s speech must have been sickening for Aquino to hear, which helps explain why in the photo opportunities during the cocktail reception, Aquino didn’t eagerly appear in the front row of the leaders, making himself more comfortable chatting with friendly colleagues, such as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The summit was held amid heightening disputes among China, Japan and South Korea over territories in the East China Sea, as well as the rival claims of Southeast Asian nations the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia over islands in the South China Sea, all of which is claimed by China. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda shunned bilateral talks with Hu and with South Korea’s Lee Myung-Bak because of Japan’s separate dispute with Seoul. Ahead of the summit, the Philippines and Vietnam had harsh words against China, accusing it of carrying out a campaign of intimidation to enforce its claims on the West Philippine Sea.

In Vladivostok, China not only engaged in double talk; it also actively sought to drive a wedge among the Asean rival claimants. Using divide-and-rule tactics, it played them off against one another. Hu held friendly bilateral talks on the sidelines of the conference with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. Sang told Hu that Hanoi was ready to work with Beijing to push for an early resolution of their disputes through peaceful consultations. While Hu was doing this backdoor lobbying on the Philippines’ allies in Asean, he pointedly kept the Filipino delegation in suspense until the last hour on the arrangements of the bilateral meeting with Aquino, thus rubbing salt on wounds.

The president had told his aides that the meeting with Hu was his top priority, not using the summit as an opportunity to attract investments into the Philippines. He was at the wrong place. Putin has said that the opening of the new suspension bridge in Vladivostok across the Golden Horn to rival San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and the modernising of the port city to the tune of US$21 billion were intended to draw investments into Russia’s far eastern region.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has dismissed the fiasco as “a scheduling challenge, but a challenge that turned out to be a bigger challenge than we anticipated.” Foreign Secretary Alberto del Rosario said the President was disappointed. “I think that a lot could have been achieved in terms of a meeting between the leaders, for them to be able to share various points of view, and I think that this is not only a downside for the Philippines but also for China. I think this is obviously a missed opportunity,” Del Rosario said.

At a press briefing before flying to Vladivostok, the president said he planned to conduct “a frank exchange of thought” with Hu in order “to divorce the talks from diplomatic niceties.” The president last met Hu during his state visit to China in August 2011. Since then, relations between the two countries have been going downhill.

Experienced visitors to China, including national delegations invited by Beijing, have learned the lesson that the inscrutable Chinese keep their guests guessing up to the last minute whether they would ever meet with leaders (or with what leaders in the hierarchy) at the Palace of the People in the Forbidden City.

Now the outcome of the standoff over the Spratlys and Scarbourough Shoal is even more uncertain than four months ago, even as Chinese maritime vessels have made their presence permanent at the rock formations claimed by the Philippines as part of its exclusive economic zone. What’s certain is that Aquino will never have another chance to meet Hu again in a face-to-face diplomatic encounter.

China is undergoing a top leadership shakeup in the Communist Party Congress within two months. Hu is expected to step down next month. His vice president, Xi Jinping, has been out of sight for more than a week amid rumors of a power struggle in the Politburo.

Amando Doronila
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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