Last week, Japan purchased the islands from a private owner, sparking outrage and demonstrations in China. In return, China recently sent several patrol boats into Japanese territorial waters. The result has been increasingly aggressive language from both sides.
Now, when I first heard about this, it seemed like the run-of-the-mill chafing of a superpower growing in an area surrounded by other countries and interests. In my mind, it is at least partially that. However, there is a lot more there. There is strong Japanese and Chinese nationalism stoking both sides. In China, there is incredibly pervasive anti-Japanese sentiment along with a potentially destabilizing change in leadership at a time of slowing economic growth and small but significant domestic criticism. The Chinese Government would undoubtedly like to draw energy away from domestic criticism, and very well might do so by pushing the Diaoyu Islands issue rather forcefully (thing Falklands under the military dictatorship in Argentina). In Japan, the central government was partially responding to popular support for the measure, but also trying to stop more radical and provocative measures to begin development of the islands.
Alright, enough of the academics and back to China. The reason I bring this up is two conversations I had over the past week. First, my host family asked my opinion on the issue, which I responded to with neutrality and mentions of related issues (like the fact that US never ratified the UN Law of the Sea, making it much weaker on the world stage) along with a condemnation of a violent solution. When I asked my host mother's opinion, she answered in a way that I imagine an American must have responded regarding what is now southern Texas in early 1846. She said, with a face somewhat flushed with patriotism, that the Diaoyu Islands were part of China, and that China should take the islands with any means necessary, including military action. In the background, a CCTV news reporter spoke about the issue as a video of Chinese patrol boats patrolling the East China filled the background.
It should be mentioned that my host mother is originally from Nanjing, so her dislike of Japan is essentially an inborn trait.
It was a Facebook message from Michael, a friend who I met in China last year, that made me realize the seriousness of those feelings. I had told him I would have lots of time free in the winter and that I would like to see him then if possible, which he responded to by saying that he would like that, but that "If the war I'm going to join the army, and my life to defend my completion of the national territory." As my Dad said later, it is language like this that leads to war. I should mention that Michael is a very passionate guy in general, but also quite earnest in his opinions. Also, his grandfather was killed in fighting with the Japanese in the Second World War.
Some of my teachers I've spoken with are not so adamant as my host mother and Michael, but even one who has many Japanese friends told me that she didn't like the Japanese government (though it sounded like a rather automatic, unbelieving response).
I don't know what it all means, but I think it is very worrisome. I believe that the government would not at all like to start a war of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands (which are promised protection by the US government), but when passions are so stirred, much can happen. As a professor said in a lecture last spring, it would be disastrous if China's rise to superpower was as conflict-ridden as that of the United States. Just imagine the US-Mexican War, the butchering of Native Americans, Cuba, the Philippines, Hawaii, Panama, Guatemala, and countless military interventions, not to mention WWI and WWII, but in a Chinese context and a modern scale, accompanying China's rise to power. Let's hope for the world's sake that China's rulers are more level-headed and peace-minded than America's were.
In other news, I bought my plane ticket to go to Myanmar for Fall Break! September 27 to October 2!
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