Posted on 01/05/2013 9:49:33 AM PST by SeekAndFind
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan scrambled fighter jets on Saturday to head off a Chinese state-owned plane that flew near islands at the centre of a dispute between Tokyo and Beijing, a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said.
The Japanese jets were mobilised after a Chinese maritime aircraft ventured some 120 km north of the Senkaku islands, which China calls the Diaoyus, at around 12:00 pm (11am Singapore time), the spokesman said.
The Chinese Y-12 twin-turboprop later left the zone without entering Japanese airspace over the islands, he added.
It was the first time Japanese fighter jets had been scrambled this year to counter Chinese aircraft approaching the islands, the spokesman said.
Is the island inhabited? Of what value is the island? (curious)
Thank you.
The island group consists of five uninhabited islets and three barren rocks.
Territorial sovereignty over the islands and the maritime boundaries around them are disputed between the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Japan.
The People’s Republic and Taiwan claim that the islands have been a part of Chinese territory since at least 1534. They acknowledge that Japan took control of the islands in 1894–1895 during the first Sino-Japanese War, through the signature of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. They assert that the Potsdam Declaration (which Japan accepted as part of the San Francisco Peace Treaty) required that Japan relinquish control of all islands except for “the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine”, and they state that this means control of the islands should pass to China.
Japan does not accept that there is a dispute, asserting that the islands are an integral part of Japan.
Japan has rejected claims that the islands were under China’s control prior to 1895, and that these islands were contemplated by the Potsdam Declaration or affected by the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
Thank you. I wonder how far each nation is willing to go over this dispute.
Since the islands are uninhabited and so tiny a plane couldn’t even land on them, it would be very helpful if the United States would send a jet or two in the dead of night to bomb the islands into smithereens, let the debris sink into the ocean, and end this foolish dispute.
But no, they’ve probably been debating this absurd issue at the State Department for weeks with no progress.
War is a brewin’.
1. Bombs only work that way on cartoons
2. As the islands were recognised as Japanese territory by the US under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, such unauthorised action would be regarded as an Act of War.
3. While those islands were under the direct control of US Okinawa occupation until 1972, two of the islands were actually used as bombing ranges; they're still there.
Conclusion: It wouldn't work, and would lose an ally.
You know, the Obama Administration is looking for people with your qualifications.
Thanks for the info and links.
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