In this case, China is in the right

First of all, The Yomiuri Shimbun’s argument that “Japan had incorporated the islands under the administration of Okinawa prefecture shortly before the end of the Sino-Japanese war, after confirming that they did not belong to the Qing empire” is without substance.

In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, Taiwan and the disputed Diaoyu Islands were returned to China based upon the 1943 agreement of the Cairo and Potsdam declarations, which clearly stipulated that “all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China”.

With strong legal and historic evidence in favour of China, Asean would not find it difficult to differentiate between black and white, notwithstanding the current territorial disputes between China and the Philippines and Vietnam.

Most of the Asean countries were invaded by Japan during the Second World War, and the many Chinese emigrants there, whether they are pro-mainland China or Taiwan, are clearly united against Japan if the island feud escalates.

The Japanese government recently named its new aircraft carrier Isumo, perhaps to remind her people that a warship with the same name invaded China in the 1930s, just short of also naming the aircraft bombers aboard Tora 1, Tora 2 and Tora 3.

Yingwai Suchaovanich

Bangkok