Our Series on Tiny Disputes takes us to the East China Sea, where a group of eight small rocky islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Dioyudao in Chinese are at the core of a major dispute between Japan and China.
These islands are geographically close to the Ryukyu Islands, but they are also close to Taiwan. They had never had any permanent settlement but had been known to both nations for a long time. Around the time China conceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895, Japan started to exploit guano on the Senkaku Islands. Since Japan officially returned Taiwan to China in 1945, the question in international law is whether the Senkaku/Dioyudao had ever been a dependency of Taiwan. As of today, Japan clearly considers they never were and maintains a presence on the islands.
This dispute is one that epitomizes the gap between the territorial stake and the strategic perception in parties in conflict. The two parties have among the strongest armed forces in the World, and control of this small Archipelago is a matter of national pride, which could descend into a major conflict at any point.
The Senkaku Islands Dispute
