Japan Grows Coral to Keep China Out

The Times Online (U.K.) ^ | June 24, 2007 | By Michael Sheridan

[JACKRUSSELL]

A Japanese expedition has started to create two coral islands in a storm-racked corner of the Pacific Ocean that seems destined to become a testing ground for renewed rivalry between Japan and China.

Japan has brought its scientific superiority to bear on the dispute over a cluster of rocks and reefs that defines the limits of Japanese maritime power and challenges Chinese expansion.

Marine biologists from Japan have just completed the first transplants of coral around a pair of islets, 1,060 miles south of Tokyo, to try to save them from waves and typhoons.

Eventually, said Kenji Miyagi, of the fisheries agency, they will graft millions of coral fragments on to the reefs to build them up above sea level and enlarge the surface of the islets, which sit just four inches above water at high tide.

The reefs were discovered by a British captain, William Douglas, on board HMS Iphigenia in 1789. They were named after him and mapped on the Admiralty charts long before anybody in Japan or China knew they existed.

Known in Japanese as Okinotorishima, or “remote bird islands”, they are critical to Japan’s interests today. Tokyo says they mark an exclusive economic zone extending 200 miles from these rocky outcrops.

Japan lays claim to resources that include fishing, minerals, oil and gas within the area. It has already spent more than £300m to build huge cement barriers encircling the islets. No less than £25m was lavished on a titanium net to protect one reef.

China disputes the Japanese claim, though even Beijing’s mapmakers, who like to enclose swathes of the South China Sea within their borders, do not assert that China has a right to the territory. Instead, the Chinese simply say that they are not islands, just rocks.

They argue that under the Law of the Sea, the Japanese therefore have no right to mark an economic zone there or to stop Chinese exploration.

The Law of the Sea states that an island is “a naturally formed area of land surrounded by water”. That is why Miyagi’s strands of coral, nurtured in laboratories on the island of Okinawa, are so important to maintaining Japan’s status quo.

Chinese survey ships have prowled the area, prompting diplomatic protests in Tokyo and a visit to the islets by Tokyo’s ultra-nationalist governor, Shintaro Ishihara, who stepped ashore waving a Rising Sun banner.

He kissed a plaque bearing the inscription “Okinotorishima, Japan”.

Then he snorkelled around the reefs and released a shoal of Japanese horse mackerel to promote the local fishing industry.

However, there is a sinister aspect to the rivalry. According to Yukie Yoshikawa, a scholar of international relations, the Chinese want to evict Japan so that they can have a free hand in the area in wartime.

“China wants freely to investigate its seabed for submarine operations in case of military conflict involving Taiwan,” she said in a paper for the Harvard Asia Quarterly.

The Americans support Japan in the dispute. If war broke out over Taiwan and the US intervened, its warships from Guam would probably have to sail across the area.

[padre35]

Two very ancient rivals are at it again, the Japanese appear to be correct about this, but when has that ever stopped China from doing anything, ask Tibet and soon Nepal....

[kinoxi]

£25m was lavished on a titanium net to protect one reef.

Interesting.

[snarks_when_bored]

China will walk softly because it knows that Japan would need about a week to produce nukes.

[farlander]

My bet is they have them assembled and in storage without the ignition mechanisms. And, one day, they’ll just announce ‘oh, we happen to have about 150 or so’.

With North Korea and China being direct threats to Japan, the second largest economy which has one of the largest military budgets (oh, it’s capped at 2% of the GDP, but 250 billion buys a lot of toys) would be crazy not to have a proper deterrent, US umbrella not withstanding.

[GATOR NAVY]

It has already spent more than £300m to build huge cement barriers encircling the islets.

Governor Ishihara visited Okinotori Islands on May 20 to inspect the coral atoll, which is located about 1,740 kilometers south of central Tokyo in Ogasawara Village. Measuring about 11 kilometers in diameter, the coral atoll consists of two islands, Kita Kojima and Higashi Kojima. The Governor toured Higashi Kojima, where he viewed the conservation and management measures being taken by the Japanese Government. The Governor also went snorkeling to check the condition of the surrounding waters. In a show of his support for the local fishing industry, he also released Japanese horse mackerel fry from a boat.

http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/PHOTO/2005/050502.htm

[GATOR NAVY]

I don't see how the Chinese think they have a claim to anything east of the Nansei Shoto (Ryukyus) but they are nothing if not arrogant.

[cmdjing]

The island is not being claimed, the EEZ around it is being challenged. It has little to do with security and everything to do with fishing. Japan regularly interdicts Chinese fishing boats and arrests the crew and detains the vessels and cargo for fishing in her waters. If Okinotori were recognized as having an EEZ, it would give Japan another 200 nautical mile radius for them to exclude other fisherman.

They however can do nothing about Chinese survey vessels mapping the ocean floor in the area or naval ships traversing the area.

[GATOR NAVY]

I see what you’re saying. Interesting argument regarding rocks vs. islands coming from the Chinese considering that they’re doing the same thing with reefs in the Spratlys.