Report Says They Are Submerged
Report Says They Are Submerged
You might think I am asking about the issue of the Diao Yu Tai islands and their sovereignty. Do they belong to China or Japan? In Japan these islands are known as the Senkaku. Last fall there was a lot of emotion and action over these islands. A Japanese youth group put up a lighthouse on these islands. Groups from Hong Kong and Taiwan protested this and demanded that Japan acknowledge that these islands belong to China. The best write up I have seen about the issue, from a professor in England, is here.In one instance protest boats from Hong Kong and Taiwan sailed to the islands, and were able to avoid the Japanese coast guard ships that were attempting to keep the Chinese boats away, and two protestors were able to plant Chinese flags--the PRC flag and the ROC flag both. In a more tragic event a protestor (named David Chan) from Hong Kong jumped into the water during a sea protest near the islands, but drowned in the churning sea.
We can see emotions run high on this issue. On the mainland where the Communist party controls things there were similar feelings against what is seen as Japanese agression with respect to the Diao Yu Tai islands. (The name essentially means Fisherman Islands). But, there on "the motherland" the party did not allow any public protests to be made by the citizens of the People's Republic.
There was an effort made in mainland China to protest. The organizer of a protest in Beijing was summarily banished to the countryside for a time by his work group so that he would not be able to organize any protest against the Japanese position. Any public protest is likley to eventually come home to roost and criticize the PRC government. Those sympathetic to the CCP would point out that they sent a people's Navy gun boat out that way one time after this issue began coming up. But when the governments of the PRC and Japan met they agreed to disagree and put off the issue. I think it was Deng who said that he felt it best to let this issue go and let the next generation figure out a solution. The PRC has consistently received money from Japan for being a third world nation. Recently these grants were renewed (see this report). The PRC may not want to make Japan angry at this point in time. 
Here's an example of the type of protest in Hong Kong that was not allowed to be done in Beijing or anywhere under the rule of the Communist party. I got this image from Democratic Alliance For Betterment of Hong Kong web site.So we can see that there are strong feelings about the issue among people from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The issue is one of nationality and rememberence of the Japanese crimes of the late 19th and early 20th century. But there is another issue involved. If one country has sovereignty over these islands that expands their territory at sea. And it gives that country the rights to any natural resources in the area. There is a common belief that there may be oil in and around the vicinity, so whoever has "ownership" of these islands may be in for an oil bonanza. We see that the PRC takes this very seriously and have begun claiming islands that are far from their shores so that they can drill for oil. Right now they are in a dispute with Viet Nam over just this issue. Here are articles reporting that the PRC is withdrawing its' oil rig from the disputed area and one saying that maybe the rig is still there.
But what of the Diao Yu Tai issue? It was so hot an issue a few months ago with the seagoing protests and protestors buring Japanese flags, but now it seems to have cooled off. These islands are really nothing more than some rocks jutting up form the sea.
This is them from aboveThey have some sagebrush and amount to only a few square miles in size. To me it seemed to be getting overly worked up over a fairly minor issue. Of course, these islands should belong to China, specifically the Republic of China, because they are simply closer to Taiwan than either Japan or the mainland. One writer described the issue as bald men fighting over posession of a comb. I thought one solution might be to drop a few bombs on these islands and get rid of the problem once and for all.
Interestingly God might agree with me. There was a very interesting and cryptic report from the China News of Taiwan English headline news. It said
A freak seismic disturbance has submerged the disputed Tiaoyutai Islands, according to reports from Japan and the US.But, this report was dated April 1, 1997. April first is April fools day.
Is this report an April Fools Day joke? Is it a trick on unsuspecting readers all in April Fool's fun? Or is God making a statement? I don't know. If anyone does know the veracity of this report or more about it, let me know.
Here are some links to Diao Yu Tai protest sites.
A page of links from the Diao Yu Tai belongs to Chinese page
