Heavy anti-Japanese sentiment sweeps China

This week has been ripe with anti Japanese sentiment in China due to the controversy surrounding the fishing boat captain being held in Japan and his pending release. A court hearing extended the captain's sentence another ten days making Sep. 29th the earliest he could be released. China feels that this measure is " illegal and invalid" stressing that Japan has no right to detain the captain. This dispute arises from a controversy surrounding political control over a group of islands where the captain was arrested.

                                            http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11354735

The area of dispute is between eastern China and Okinawa. The small island chain that presides there is known as  Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Although the islands are uninhabitable by humans, a certain species of wild goat lives there along with a rare type of mole.The area is however beneficial to humans in that it is reportedly a ripe fishing ground for both Chinese and Japanese sailors. There is also a possibility that the area has some untapped oil reserves. Although Japan at the present controls the area, China feels it has greater claim to the islands.

Japanese representatives say that the captain of the vessel intentionally rammed into one or two larger Japanese boats and that they were trying to "shoo him away". Alcohol may also have been a contributing factor to the captain's behavior.

Because of Japan's decisions, China has halted any high priority talks and ties with Japan. Some of these talks reportedly had to do with heavy topics such as aviation and coal. Not only were several of these high priority meetings held off, several protesters in China surrounded the Japanese embassy demanding the release of their captain. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11234742

This protest also marks the anniversary of the Mukden incident from 1931. This is when a Japanese owned railroad track in southern Manchuria was bombed and Chinese nationalists were blamed. This then led to the Japanese occupation of the area, setting the stage for the later second Shino-Japanese war. There is however much controversy over who actually did the bombing with many believing the Japanese themselves to have done it for an excuse to occupy the area. Although tensions are high in China right now, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming few days will pan out and if any of the high priority talks will take place between the two countries.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11363024
http://www.economist.com/node/17049121
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_incident
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11354735