No Matter What Island You Are In
(Peu importe où vous êtes...)
It may be time to strengthen the protection of the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and especially the Borneo Island from invasion by China.
SECTION I: The New York Times Should Learn Tibet More before the East China Sea
I-1： "N. Kristof" Could Not See How to Interpret Evidence
The New York Times presented a judgment on the Senkaku Islands by somebody called "N. Kristof," which has alarmed many Japanese people, including many lawmakers.
"N. Kristof" wrote actually that he thinks the Senkaku Islands belongs to China based on two unidentified pieces of evidence: "Chinese navigational records show the islands as Chinese for many centuries, and a 1783 Japanese map shows them as Chinese as well."
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/look-out-for-the-diaoyu-islands/
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/more-on-the-senkakudiaoyu-islands/#more-6575
First of all, there are many islands on the Pacific Ocean around China and especially between Taiwan and China or between Taiwan and Okinawa (the large southern island of Japan). It is not possible at all to identify what island is mentioned precisely in an older report prepared before modernization of China.
Further, watching a desert island from a ship in the 18th century or before does not constitute effective occupation of the island, if the same island had been so spotted to many times by private or even official ships. When carefully checking some old reports by sailors and officials of the Ming Dynasty, it is found that there was no evidence that the Dynasty regarded many of small islands between Taiwan and Okinawa as being subject to its sovereignty (refer to I-4: Appendix).
Second, during the 18th century, Japan closed the nation to the world except trade with China and the Netherlands. Even Okinawa was not directly governed by the central Government at Edo (Tokyo). Hence, the samurai government had no need to prepare a map to specify small islands around the Okinawa main island and make clear a state of occupation of them. It is not business of the shogunate.
Therefore, after the fall of the samurai government in 1868, the modern Meiji Government of the Empire of Japan checked the state of occupation of the Senkaku Islands and declare occupation by the Empire in January 1895 as the then governor of Okinawa so asked in 1885. Apart from this legal procedure, Qing (Ching) China was defeated by the Empire of Japan in the Japanese-Sino War, leading to the peace treaty between the two Empires in April 1895. The territorial issue over the Senkaku Islands was not included in causes of the war for both the Empires.
I-2： "N. Kristof" Could Not Know Chinese Traditional Indifference to Islands
You look at the map.
You see the Senkaku Islands being so close to the Chinese mainland (and Taiwan) while the mainland Japan is so far from the Senkaku Islands. The Chinese continent is overwhelmingly close to the East China Sea but the Japanese islands mostly face the North-West Pacific Ocean (and the Seas of Japan as well as the Sea of Okhotsk).
So, you think that Chinese people and officials frequently visited the Senkaku Islands.
But, it is not true.
The Chinese people have not been maritime people at all. They have not been interested in other lands except the mainland or the central plain of China. Even Taiwan was long out of concern of Chinese dynasties, or till the 17th century. The Chinese mainland was rich and cultivated enough. They had no intention to expand their territories over the Pacific Ocean which were places out of the boundary of the great Chinese Civilization.
Even the last Chinese empire Ching (1616-1912) did not fully occupy Taiwan. The Senkaku Islands were not of their concern as they were just small desert islands.
If the Chinese past dynasties had been interested in islands and the Pacific Ocean, they should have occupied Taiwan, Okinawa, the Korean Peninsula, the Philippines, Japan, and Hawaii in their 2000 year history.
But, the Chinese past dynasties had no such interest and ability. They had to rather prepare for invasion by northern tribes, such as Mongolians, and wars with Muslims in the west. They could not even fully occupy Manchuria, Vietnam, Tibet, and Korea. The great exploration voyage conducted during the Ming Dynasty was very exceptional. They found many islands and worlds, but Ming had no intention to occupy them. This episode rather showed indifference of the elite Han people to islands and the sea.
Finally, the Chinese Dynasties had not concept of a national territory and borders. A Chinese emperor is the sole governor of the lands where the superior Chinese Civilisation prevailed. He did not need to set boundaries between his civilized empire and wildness occupied by uncivilised kings. Barbarian kings were simply expected to show their obedience to the Chinese emperor. Then, the Chinese emperor allowed trade for providing Chinese culture to them. Yet, Japan stopped this relationship in the 6th century, though Korea continued it till the 20th century.
(The Long Wall was not a boundary or a border. It is a defence line within the Chinese Empire which could expand as far as kingdoms and tribes beyond the Long Wall bring a tribute to a Chinese imperial court.)
I-3: "N. Kristof" Did Not Know Tibet and the Uighur Region
The China governed by communist leaders and elites are different.
They invaded Tibet and continued occupation of the Uyghur Region in a manner different from past dynasties.
The New York Times should stop help China try to make Taiwan another Tibet, while China is exercising its naval powers over the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia already.
For China to militarily invade Taiwan, the Japan's Senkaku Islands and Okinawa are great obstacles.
They would rather pay big money to American journalists so as to make them claim that the Japan's Senkaku Islands and Okinawa should belong to mainland China, namely the Chinese Communist Party.
The New York Times should remember that American prosperity has been supported by Japan after WWII but not by the Chinese Communist Party.
The fact that the Senkaku Islands are closer to Shanghai than to Tokyo does not constitute grounds for admitting China's violent attitudes to Japan who duly declared its occupation of the Senkaku Islands in 1895 to the world, since there was no evidence that they were governed by Ching.
(And, when Ching was defeated in the war next year by the Empire of Japan, it simply delivered Taiwan to the Empire of Japan. The Senkaku Islands were neither officially attached to Taiwan nor dealt differently through this diplomatic procedure in 1895.)
Finally, The New York Times should help Tibetans and Uighur Muslims get independence if the newspaper claim they respect justice.
Or, will The New York Times feel comfortable and pleasant to hear a journalist in Tokyo saying, "I have a feeling that Texas and California should belong to Mexico, since old documents indicate so and many Mexican gangs are wishing so?"
I-4: Appendix
If The New York Times and "N. Kristof" could read Japanese or Chinese, they had better check the Chinese documents in the following sites that admit Japan's sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands:
http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1047441795
Further, in terms of an old document issued by the Ming dynasty in 1562, namely "Chinese navigational records," its description is not coherent. It simply allowed for a possibility that some Chinese officials of the 16th century thought that the Senkaku Islands could be their own despite a policy and the will of the Dynasty that respected a relationship with Okinawa.
For The New York Times to be more responsible, refer to a paper prepared by an researcher of the Japanese National Diet Library:
http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/data/publication/issue/0565.pdf
SECTION II: Victims by the Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party of today has nothing to do with merit and virtue of the ancient Chinese Civilization, including Confucianism, which are still alive in Japan and partly in Korea and Taiwan.
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Criticisms of communist party rule
The number of people killed under Mao Zedong's rule in the People's Republic of China has been estimated at 19.5 million by Wang Weizhi,[36] 27 million by John Heidenrich,[37] between 38 and 67 million by Kurt Glaser and Stephan Possony,[38] between 32 and 59 million by Robert L. Walker,[39] 50+ million by Steven Rosefielde,[32] 65 million by The Black Book of Communism, well over 70 million by Mao: The Unknown Story, and 77 million by R.J. Rummel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_communist_party_rule#Forced_labor_and_deportations
The 55-year history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is written with blood and lies. The stories behind this bloody history are not only brutally inhumane but also rarely known. Under the rule of the CCP, 60 to 80 million innocent Chinese people have been killed, leaving their broken families behind. Many people wonder why the CCP kills. While the CCP continues its brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and recently suppressed protesting crowds in Hanyuan with gunshots, people wonder if they will ever see the day when the CCP will learn to speak with words rather than guns.
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-12-22/25124.html
Since the uprising, which began March 10, 1959, an estimated 1 million Tibetans "have lost their lives, countless have been arbitrarily imprisoned, cultural and religious institutions have been decimated, and Tibet's fragile environment has been irrevocably damaged," Students for a Free Tibet said Friday.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/261791,china-exiles-mark-50-years-of-communist-rule-in-tibet.html
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So, friends, the recent Chinese unlawful attitude to Japan on the arrest of a Chinese skipper around the Japan's Senkaku Islands is all about saving face for Chinese leaders:
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Stephen Collinson, 12:35, Friday 24 September 2010
US President Barack Obama will seek to lock in deeper ties with Southeast Asia on Friday, as simmering regional maritime disputes reflect mounting security questions posed by a rising China.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-to-focus-on-china-at-asean-summit-in-new-york-afp-6636dc42819f.html?x=0
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In this international meeting held around the United Nations led by the U.S., China is treated as a kind of pirate.
So, China is losing face. Chinese leaders are afraid of losing face. So, they decided to behave violently not to be scoffed at. Then, they targeted Japan where a Chinese fishing boat was seized by the Japan Coast Guard around the Japan's Senkaku Islands close to the sea border into China.
Losing its face in the South China Sea, China is forced to behave arrogantly to Japan. It is a tactics of a small-timer gangster.
So, friends, do not worry.
China being a gangster and Japan being a gentleman as is usual, peace will be maintained.
However, I recommend you not to go to China. I recommend you to transfer your business and assets in China to other Asian nations.
And, there are Chinatowns all over the world today. You do not have to go to China to enjoy Chinese dishes.
I once really enjoyed some Chinese foods in the Chinatown of Yokohama. Haven't you ever been there? There are Chinese or Taiwanese in the Chinatown of Yokohama, Japan, of course. Isn't it enough? Remember I do not go to China, but will go to the Chinatown of Yokohama, Japan!
See you, tomorrow!
(http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~sl9k-mtfj/MIDI_folder/Orphee.mid
Source: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~sl9k-mtfj/mid.html)
Mar 9:25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.