China riots, island tensions and the UN -updated

[Squilookle]

It looks like the Middle East isn't the only place getting an outbreak of rioting. Just look at this!

http://imgur.com/a/Y7oIp

What do you think? Could this be the trigger for an armed conflict over the territory? Could it spark long held tensions between China and Taiwan? Or will it blow over as order is restored in the region?



Anti-Japanese sentiment in China is at a peak as the Senkaku Islands (or Diaoyu Islands to the Chinese) have become Nationalised Japanese territory, after the government officially bought 3 of the islands from private Japanese owners.

http://news.yahoo.com/more-anti-japan-protests-china-over-islands-034425792.html

Historically, The US owned the Islands from 1945 until 1972, where it reverted to Japan under the Okinawa Reversion Treaty. Following a 1969 survey by the ECAFE that suggested oil and gas reserves may be found in the vicinity of the islands, the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC- or Taiwan) began to lay claims to the territory. Chinese newspapers and television have erupted in fury over Japan's purchase, which is seen by both the PRC and ROC as Chinese sovereign territory.


The riots have spread to over eighty five cities across China, with Japanese products boycotted, Racist banners hanging from walls, Japanese cars smashed and tipped over on sight, and Japanese shops firebombed and burned down.

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/09/front-page-fury-over-diaoyu-purchase/

China has sent two patrol ships to the islands to "assert the country's sovreignity." US Defence Secretary Leon Panatta has urged both sides to tone it down, as "when these countries engage in provocations of one kind or another over these various islands it raises the possibility that a misjudgment on one side or the other could result in violence and could result in conflict"

EDIT: If you want to know what the translations are for the pictures... try actually clicking on the links! It works wonders!

On the anniversary of the Mukden Incident, Chinese riots reach fever pitch- extending now to one hundred and eighty cities across China.

Economic effects take hold as Japanese businesses begin suspending operations across China: watch?v=AmJpjW1iQu0

Japan responds to China's '1000 boats' show of force by installing a new US ballistic missile base on the Japanese mainland. The US stands by its defence treaty with Japan.


In the Chinese Capital, a visiting Hilary Clinton is warned by the Chinese to keep the US out of territorial disputes off the Chinese coast. China states it is prepared to use force if necessary to protect its claims from Japan.

Tensions expected to remain for several years.

[HEADING=2]UPDATE- New developments:[/HEADING]

China has appealed directly through the UN to Japan to recognise Chinese ownership of the islands, now saying that China was 'tricked' into giving up the islands to Japan in 1895. Looks like China's going all out in it's pursuit of the islands now.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/japan-stole-our-islands-china-tells-un/story-e6frfkui-1226483374770

 

[Keoul]

Damn this looks pretty damn serious
Hope we don't get another Tiananmen Square Massacre on our hands...

 

[yuval152]

This is pretty bad, I hope it dosen't evolve into a war.

 

[Steppin Razor]

What is it with Asian countries and hating each other so much? They're getting to be almost as bad as differing religious sects that will murder each other at the drop of a hat.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

What is it with Asian countries and hating each other so much? They're getting to be almost as bad as differing religious sects that will murder each other at the drop of a hat.

They've been at war with each other. A lot.

It's no different than England/France or England/Scotland or England/Ireland. Well it's a little different as the last time the east Asian countries were at war was WW2, so there's still a fair amount of people who lived through that.

It'll fade in time but for the moment it's still contentious.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, China has a rather hefty chip on its shoulder when it comes to Japan, and who can blame them.

But the Chinese government has a solid grip on the media, so the only reason these riots are happening is because they want it to happen.

 

[Bernzz]

Major fucking brofist to this guy.

+1 brofist from me, too.

This looks pretty damn serious. I can only say that I hope it gets no worse. :/

 

[Shinsei-J]

Wow, hope it doesn't break out into a worse conflict.

 

[Bvenged]

Why don't they just share the fucking islands? Allow each others companies to set up shop for the oil, and split the profits?

Sovereignty means fuck-all when no population is living there and nobody gave a shit about it for 60 odd years; we all know this is about the money. Japan pulled a fast one and China's being a ***** about it beforehand and after. Petty squabble that could end up being needlessly more serious.

 

[Scrustle]

I find it hard to believe this is happening in the 21st century. Why the hell would the whole of China lose its shit over a couple of little islands which they haven't owned for ages? I thought the human race was past the whole land-grabbing obsession. Empires are built through businesses now, not occupation of land. These kind of acts just look barbaric nowadays. Or perhaps this is just about the oil?

Then again I guess it wasn't so long ago that the whole Falklands War thing went down. Maybe we're not past this kind of things after all.

 

[Albino Boo]

What is it with Asian countries and hating each other so much? They're getting to be almost as bad as differing religious sects that will murder each other at the drop of a hat.

The Japanese invaded China in 1937 and was in constant conflict until 1945. During the invasion and occupation anything up to 4 million Chinese died, including single incidents like the Nanking Massacre where 200-400,000 died. The Japanese are as about as popular in China as the Germans are in Israel for rather similar reasons.


On the Japanese side the Chinese government are rather fond of making territorial claims based on brief historical control or even Imperial propaganda claims of control. Rather like the Spanish claiming control of Holland because they controlled the country for 60 years in the 1500s. China has invaded and controls Tibet, invaded India and still occupies the disputed land, invaded Vietnam and forced the giving up of claims to control of other South China seas islands and lastly engaged the Russians in regimental sized battles over the disputed border. In China has added more land to itself by armed force than any other nation since WW2. Which somewhat concerns its neighbours

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Major fucking brofist to this guy.

Also, this:

Is hilarious. Modern propaganda for you - mix hate speech with materialism. Love it.

For those of us who are not graced with multilinguality, could you (or anyone else) perhaps give us a translation, if it is at all possible?

 

[Albino Boo]

they aren't "imperialist" at all and virtually never have been since the country became a single political entity thousands of years ago.

what China does do is work on the basis of old maps created long before western and regional powers such as Japan forced the map of their country to change due to their own "imperialism".

China basically doesn't have an "imperialist" or "expansionist" aims and if you believe otherwise you really don't understand China or the Chinese.

simplistically all they care about is China and unifying the mostly small parts that have been hacked off it during "The century of humiliation" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation ) due to outside imperialism conducted against them.

Tell that to the Tibetans who they invaded in 1956, the Indians who they attacked in 1962, the Russians who they attacked in 1969 and the Vietnamese who they attacked in 1979. By your logic Germany was perfectly within its rights to attack Poland in 1939 because West Prussia had been part of Germany before 1918 and was lost in the humiliating treaty of Versailles.

 

[Lazy]

I find it hard to believe this is happening in the 21st century. Why the hell would the whole of China lose its shit over a couple of little islands which they haven't owned for ages? I thought the human race was past the whole land-grabbing obsession. Empires are built through businesses now, not occupation of land. These kind of acts just look barbaric nowadays. Or perhaps this is just about the oil?

I'm guessing it's less about the islands than it is about who's buying them. Japan's history with China is pretty sordid, to say the least.

 

[Arakasi]

Ahh fuck.

Murcciah should just step in and say fuck you, it's mine. Everyone is already comfortable with hating on Murricah.

 

[GundamSentinel]

The spoils of war!

Yeah, some Chinese guy apparently mistook a Mercedes for a Mitsubishi... After this, shutting down two Panasonic factories because of arson, 'mistakenly' setting fire to a Samsung factory (they thought it was Japanese or just hate Koreans as well), cripling a guy for driving a Japanese car and the government making Japan responsible for all damages and more general idiocy, can China humiliate itself even further? I sure hope not...

 

[MetalMagpie]

What is it with Asian countries and hating each other so much? They're getting to be almost as bad as differing religious sects that will murder each other at the drop of a hat.

The Japanese invaded China in 1937 and was in constant conflict until 1945. During the invasion and occupation anything up to 4 million Chinese died, including single incidents like the Nanking Massacre where 200-400,000 died. The Japanese are as about as popular in China as the Germans are in Israel for rather similar reasons.


On the Japanese side the Chinese government are rather fond of making territorial claims based on brief historical control or even Imperial propaganda claims of control. Rather like the Spanish claiming control of Holland because they controlled the country for 60 years in the 1500s. China has invaded and controls Tibet, invaded India and still occupies the disputed land, invaded Vietnam and forced the giving up of claims to control of other South China seas islands and lastly engaged the Russians in regimental sized battles over the disputed border. In China has added more land to itself by armed force than any other nation since WW2. Which somewhat concerns its neighbours

Yep, that basically sums it up.

The current not-too-bad-really relationship between England and France is mostly thanks to the two World Wars. And (arguably) relations had only cooled enough to take the same side in those wars thanks to the diplomatic efforts of people such as Edward VII, who spoke fluent French and visited Paris a lot (mostly for the prostitutes!) during his time as Prince Regent to Queen Victoria.

Without those factors, the UK and France might still behaving in a similar fashion.

I find it hard to believe this is happening in the 21st century. Why the hell would the whole of China lose its shit over a couple of little islands which they haven't owned for ages? I thought the human race was past the whole land-grabbing obsession. Empires are built through businesses now, not occupation of land. These kind of acts just look barbaric nowadays. Or perhaps this is just about the oil?

From a political perspective, it's probably mostly about the oil. (Black gold and all that.) Also, all of the above reasons why the two countries just don't like each other!

 

[wings012]

And ultimately, all these bloody riots do is hurt China itself.

I just hope the Malaysian Chinese down here aren't nearly as retarded as that lot. Though I'm sure the local Malay police will be happy to oblige those dumb enough and beat/shoot/gas some sense into them.

 

[Albino Boo]

Tell that to the Tibetans who they invaded in 1956, the Indians who they attacked in 1962, the Russians who they attacked in 1969 and the Vietnamese who they attacked in 1979.

to the Chinese Tibet is part of China. it only existed as an independent state for 30 years of its entire history. "old maps" as i said before.

the rest were cold war border conflicts that resulted in next to no territorial change and directly led to the Sino-Soviet split and China becoming a US ally in the cold war. if you want to frame those as Chinese "imperialist" aggression you simply are making a mockery of far more complicated history involved.

and by my "logic" nothing. my or your supposed "logic" and your desire for the world to adhere to it while throwing around false equivalences doesn't shape the world. but the Chinese Confuciust view of China does shape their world and maybe just maybe you should find out what the hell that is before you go trying to label them the next overly simplistic "big bad" on the world stage simply because for your own world view to work you've got to have one.

this ? this a an argument about a rock in the sea akin to multitudes of others some of which almost certainly involve your own country ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_territorial_disputes ) and as such it doesn't particularly mark China down as anything.

Just how long did Poland exist as independent country before the Germans invaded? Tibet has been part of China for periods of history, first coming into Chinese control under the Mongols and has come and gone since with the strength of the ruling dynasties. Much like Poland has appeared and disappeared in the same time period. China since WW2 has consistently used armed force in backing its view of the borders, in the process killing 10000s of poeple and attempting to destroy any non Chinese culture within its selfdefined borders. 90% of countries in the world can make convincing historical claims to control of parts or even entire other countries, why is it acceptable for China to used armed force on its claims but not Mexico to invade the US to reclaim the southern half of the US?

 

[BirdKiller]

The fight over the islands isn't for the land or the resources around it, but a matter of pride between these nations. For the most part, the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese have rivalries going on, part because of race (each think they're superior), history (as someone else has given a summary of), and culture (yes, each culture is different). The fight/protest over the islands is merely a manifest of that. There are other things going on:

Korea and Japan has issues with some different islands

China and Korea has issues over which part of the Yellow Sea belongs to them

Japan supposedly/seemingly not showing much regret over their role in WWII, much less educating their public, from the perspective of Korean/Chinese.

Things like these keep refreshing the "triangle of hate" the region seems to have. Doesn't help that these countries are also competing economically, politically, and militarily.

As for the current protests going in China against Japan: There's not going to be any dramatic or long term consequences. Such protests and regional conflicts have occurred frequently for the last 2 decades. You're only hearing it now because the media reports it and an individual has more options to show it. I wouldn't deduce anything from this other than the fact that regional differences and rivalry are still well and alive.