page_title: Senkaku Islands dispute
section_title: Post-1970s position
hierarchical_section_title: Senkaku Islands dispute / Territorial dispute / People's Republic of China and Republic of China positions / Post-1970s position
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 在1786年（清乾隆五十一年）日本仙台人 林子平 制作的《三国通览图说》之《琉球国全图》中显示福建前往琉球中山南北两条海路路线，其中南路标示花瓶屿、彭佳山、钓鱼台、黄尾山、赤尾山诸岛采用了与福建省相同的颜色。English: The Diaoyu Islands shown in pink as the same color as Fujian, China from a Japanese book, Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (三国通覧図説 An Illustrated Description of Three Countries) by Hayashi Shihei (1785).
context_page_description: The Senkaku Islands dispute, or Diaoyu Islands dispute, concerns a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, the Diaoyu Islands in the People's Republic of China, and Tiaoyutai Islands in the Republic of China. Aside from a 1945 to 1972 period of administration by the United States as part of the Ryukyu Islands, the archipelago has been controlled by Japan since 1895. According to Lee Seokwoo, the People's Republic of China started taking up the question of sovereignty over the islands in the latter half of 1970 when evidence relating to the existence of oil reserves surfaced. Taiwan also claims the islands. The territory is close to key shipping lanes and rich fishing grounds, and there may be oil reserves in the area.
  Japan argues that it surveyed the islands in the late 19th century and found them to be terra nullius; subsequently, China acquiesced to Japanese sovereignty until the 1970s.
context_section_description: Although Chinese authorities did not assert claims to the islands while they were under US administration, formal claims were announced in 1971 when the US was preparing to end its administration. A 1968 academic survey undertaken by United Nations Economic Council for Asia and the Far East found possible oil reserves in the area which many consider explains the emergence of Chinese claims, a suggestion confirmed by statements made on the diplomatic records of the Japan-China Summit Meeting by Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972. However, supporters of China's claim that the sovereignty dispute is a legacy of Japanese imperialism and that China's failure to secure the territory following Japan's military defeat in 1945 was due to the complexities of the Chinese Civil War in which the Kuomintang (KMT) were forced off the mainland to Taiwan in 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party. Both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) respectively separately claim sovereignty based on arguments that include the following points:
  Discovery and early recording in maps and travelogues.
  The islands being China's frontier off-shore defence against wokou (Japanese pirates) during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911).
  A Chinese map of Asia, as well as the Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu map compiled by Japanese cartographer Hayashi Shihei in the 18th century, showing the islands as a part of China.
  Japan taking control of the islands in 1895 at the same time as the First Sino-Japanese War was happening. Furthermore, correspondence between Foreign Minister Inoue and Interior Minister Yamagata in 1885, warned against the erection of national markers and developing their land to avoid Qing Dynasty suspicions.
  The Potsdam Declaration stating that "Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine", and "we" referred to the victors of the Second World War who met at Potsdam and Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Declaration when it surrendered.
  China's formal protest of the 1971 US transfer of control to Japan.
  According to Chinese claims, the islands were known to China since at least 1372, had been repeatedly referred to as part of Chinese territory since 1534, and were later controlled by the Qing dynasty along with Taiwan. The earliest written record of Diaoyutai dates back to 1403 in a Chinese book Voyage with the Tail Wind (zh:順風相送), which recorded the names of the islands that voyagers had passed on a trip from Fujian to the Ryukyu Kingdom.
  By 1534, all the major islets of the island group were identified and named in the book Record of the Imperial Envoy's Visit to Ryukyu  (使琉球錄). and were the Ming dynasty's (16th-century) sea-defense frontier. One of the islands, Chihweiyu, marked the boundary of the Ryukyu Islands. This is viewed by the PRC and ROC as meaning that these islands did not belong to the Ryukyu Islands.
  The First Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1894 and after the Qing dynasty of China lost the war, both countries signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki on 17 April 1895. In Article 2(b) the Treaty stated that "the island of Formosa, together with all islands appertaining or belonging to the said island of Formosa" should be ceded to Japan. Although the Treaty did not specifically name every ceded island, the PRC and ROC argue that Japan did not include the islands as part of Okinawa Prefecture prior to 1894, and that the eventual inclusion occurred only as a consequence of China's cession of Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War.
  The Japanese government argues that the islands were not ceded by this treaty. In 1884, issues relating to the islands had been officially discussed by the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Inoue Kaoru and the Minister of the Interior Yamagata Aritomo before incorporating them in 1895. shortly before Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War. It is also claimed that Japanese references to these islands did not appear in governmental documents before 1884.
  The PRC and ROC governments cl
caption: A 1785 Japanese map, the Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (三国通覧図説) by Hayashi Shihei adopted the Chinese kanji (釣魚臺 Diaoyutai) to annotate the Senkaku Islands, which were painted red in the same color as all other lands that it did not rule.[11][42] The primary text itself can be found here.[43]
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