Pages

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Diaoyutai Tidbits

Friends passed along these interesting tidbits of information:

“Around the turn of this century, an enterprising Japanese named Koga brought in scores of seasonal workers, food and supplies each year to develop Tiao-yu, Huang wei and Nan-hsiao [the three Senkaku islands-- MT]. Houses, reservoirs, docks, warehouses and sewers were built and experimental planting was conducted. Koga was engaged in the business of collecting guano and albatross feathers, bonito canning, and bird stuffing. His business was discontinued in 1915 because of the high cost. After his death in 1918, his son continued his fish canning and bird stuffing businesses until the early 1940’s, when all operations were terminated and enterprises abandoned.”

Ying-jeou Ma, “Legal Problems of Seabed Boundary Delimitation in the East China Sea,” Occasional Papers/Reprints Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, Number 3 – 1984 (62), School of Law, University of Maryland, 1984, pp 92-93.

Check out the author's name on that above piece. The second relates to the US position on the Senkakus/Diayutais:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/senkaku.htm):

"The 1960 US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security applies to territories under the administration of Japan, including the Senkaku Islands. In November 1996, Assistant Secretary of Defense Campbell stated that the basic position of the US is that the Japan-US security treaty would cover the Senkaku Islands. Secretary of Defense William Perry reconfirmed this fact on 03 December 1996.

On March 24, 2004, Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman at the US State Deparment said "The Senkaku Islands have been under the administrative control of the Government of Japan since having been returned as part of the reversion of Okinawa in 1972. Article 5 of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security states that the treaty applies to the territories under the administration of Japan; thus, Article 5 of the Mutual Security Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands. Sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands is disputed. The U.S. does not take a position on the question of the ultimate sovereignty of the Senkaku Diaoyu Islands. This has been our longstanding view. We expect the claimants will resolve this issue through peaceful means and we urge all claimants to exercise restraint.""


News is that the Presidential Office and KMT HQ are reigning in the idiot legislators.

6 comments:

  1. Most of the people believe only what they want to believe even if you put their own nose on their...
    The last 5 weeks were very informative even though the actual president is shining as a star by his silence.
    In less than one month, a political party took the power. Not even the government and the president (supposed to have the same color)seems to be in charge anymore.
    As you wrote in several of your posts, things will get worst and worst.
    That remind me the Murphy law.
    For Taiwan, I feel that Murphy was still an optimistic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you think the author's name is funny. You do know Ma's doctoral thesis is about island and territory disputes although he did not name the specific island. I bet it is still sitting somewhere in the Harvard library.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those islands have historically been Chaon's territory. I am preparing mighty machines of war to defend them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Islands have long played a role in Han mythology, but even after Kang xi, the middle kingdom was never a maritime empire and the emperors did not regard islands as integral territory. In the few hundred years (yes, not very long) of Han knowledge of Taiwan, it had only been regarded as a "fence" to protect the realm. I don't imagine the Diaoyutais figured much into Han cosmologies. Chinese nationalism is so anachronistic. LOL!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ma's thesis was indeed on Diaoyutai, and I believe the name of the cited article is also the name of Ma's dissertation. I'm sure the dissertation is in the Harvard Library and there is probably also a copy at the National Central Library in their comprehensive collection of theses written in North America by Taiwanese.

    Ma has been linked to the Diaoyu tai movement since he was a student and, for anyone who knows what nutcases those people are, it is a source of concern.

    The picture of PFP politician in this morning's Taipai Times getting ready to throw a plastic water bottle at a Japanese vessel was typical.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Throw a water bottle?... Why didn't he just try to drive a truck into him?

    A TRUE Chinese nationalist would abandon islands and focus on everything east of the great wall and west of the coast....

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.