I don't want to make this overtly political, but I have not heard a word of this on the American news other than comments about territorial disputes between China and Japan. I figured it was some long-running thing as with the Spratlys but this looks like it could spin out of control fast. Anti-Japanese Demonstrations in China - Imgur
I won't spin out of control fast because neither party has anything to gain by that. It's just saber-rattling and rhetoric by both nations, another move in a dance they've been doing for over 60 years. Senkaku Islands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maybe, but economic woes + poor relations & ethnic tensions + violence tends to lead to = history repeating itself.
I have a response too, but no matter how I phrase things, its not gonna be appropriate for this forum (believe me, I spent like 10 minutes trying), so instead I'll just facepalm at the fact that shit like this still happens.
I could see the Spratleys leading to open conflict long before the Senkakus. I mean seriously, every single nation in the region has some worthless rock they dispute ownership with. China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, hell, even Russia is still feuding with Japan over the Kuril Islands. It's an issue that's normally nonsense, and that each nation uses for nationalistic and political purposes, except in the case of the Spratleys, where there's likely a ton of oil and fishing wealth involved.
South Korea's not too popular here in Taiwan at the moment. The truly sick thing about this current Japan/China spat is, as my wife was telling it was on the news, people in China are torturing animals that are of Japanese descent simply because of that. Never mind that they chose the animals to begin with and they are supposed to be pets. I seriously, seriously hate the f*cking Chinese government. They allow this kind of behaviour as deterrent to the people rising up against them.
Hrm. According to 'history', (ie, pre WW2, pre Taiwan) those islands were originally part of China. During the Second World War control of the Northern and Eastern parts of China came under Japanese control, including those islands. After the war for some reason even though most of China was handed back to the Chinese, someone didn't think those islands needed to be too. After the Communist party gained power after a civil war in the 50's the National Party fled China and settled in Taiwan, now these disputed islands are actually within the international water line of Taiwan, but but because Taiwan is not an internationally recognised state they can't legally claim them. So China believe the Islands are theirs because they were taken from them during the Second world war, Taiwan claim them because geographically they're closest and Japan claim them because they're the most recent rulers of the land. But this is moot really, no one is actually interested in the islands themselves, they're all after the supposed massive gas/oil resources in the surrounding seas. Best case scenario I can see, China pays Japan a huge amount of money to buy the islands. Worst case, WW3. Hooray!
It's pretty much like the dispute over the Falkland Islands between the UK and Argentina (especially as there's oil in the Senkaku islands), but, from what I know, no-one seems to live there, so I guess it'll be much more difficult for either country to properly claim sovereignty, unlike the Falklands, where the inhabitants refer to themselves as British or Falkland Islanders I knew that they had been a disputed territory, but I've never heard of such large protests over it
I understand why North Korea and China probably won't get along well with other countries, but the other asian countries... can't they just unite or something? Are they really sooo different? Even Europe tries to unite. I dream of the world being only one country in the future and everyone speaking a language that is a mixture of the most common languages. That must be cool. But people have to learn that we achieve more together and not when we try to be better than others.
Yes, they are vastly different in terms of linguistics and culture. Hell, Vietnam and China went to war a few decades ago! Most of Europe is enjoying the longest uninterrupted period of peace since, well, forever. Before 1945 we were regularly kicking the shit out of each other every 20-30 years. We only really teamed up because of the Soviet threat.
I kno rite? They look same and everyfing! O. M. G. I kid I kid. I think Asian history is so full of who did what to who, coupled with an insane sense of nationalistic pride that Asia will never truely unite.
