Power Transition and International Order in Asia by Peter Shearman

Author:Peter Shearman [Shearman, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136760037
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2013-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 7.1 Security issues of interest to the Japanese public

Source: Data taken from Japan’s Cabinet Office, Survey on Self-Defence Forces and Defence, 1991 and 2012

China

While China’s naval military expansion in the South China Sea has increased tension among the countries concerned, Beijing’s revisionist behaviour towards Japan poses increasingly significant worries and challenges in Tokyo. The territorial disputes across the South China Sea have thus attracted much academic attention.11 Soon after the regime change in Japan, China reiterated its claim to the Senkaku islands by taking advantage of the incident where a Chinese fishing vessel collided with JCG patrol boats. This incident was one of numerous activities by Chinese vessels operating in Japanese territorial waters near the islands, and in other disputed areas of the East China Sea. In fact, Chinese oil exploration ships and other vessels have been sighted and reported around the Senkaku Islands regularly as early as the mid-1990s. The Chinese government then announced Chinese names for the islands in a more strident effort to press its claim to territorial sovereignty over them. The issue was further brought into sharp focus in September 2010 when the JCG patrol boat Yonakuni discovered a Chinese fishing boat operating in Japanese territorial waters off one of the Senkaku islands. Despite the JCG’s instructions to leave the area, the Chinese trawler ignored the order and instead intentionally collided with the JCG patrol boat in a belligerent manner. As a result, the captain was detained on suspicion of obstructing the performance of public duty.

China reacted swiftly by condemning the detention internationally, thus testing the mettle of Japan’s newly elected DPJ government. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who was in the United States to attend the UN General Assembly, used that forum to demand the immediate and unconditional release of the captain. He went further, threatening the Japanese government with additional action if this demand was not met. Calling the arrests “illegal”, Beijing also summoned Japan’s ambassador to China repeatedly over a period of several days and nights to press their views in the matter.12 China’s menacing actions included economic measures such as halting the exports of rare earths to Japan, which are crucial for a wide range of products in the electronics and renewable-energy industries, and Beijing also detained unrelated Japanese business people employed by the Fujita Corporation, who just happened to be in China at that time. Chinese countermeasures extended into the cultural field too. Beijing immediately suspended an invitation to a Japanese youth group that was scheduled to visit the Shanghai Expo.

Fourteen days after the collision, the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office in Okinawa decided to release the captain pending a decision on whether to prosecute him. The District Public Prosecutors Office mentioned the decision was made on the basis of ‘… possible influence of the Japanese people on the future Japan-China relations’, implying pressure from the central government.13

The series of countermeasures taken by the Chinese government was perceived to be very aggressive in Japan, and the threatening manner in which

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