Plexyre
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@HongWu and Chinese members: Could you please explain the Chinese position and the history of the territorial dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyutai/Diaoyu islands.
It seems the Russia and Japan have a territorial dispute over some of the Kuril islands.
I'll begin with some background information. The Diaoyudao/Diaoyutai were administered by Taiwan Province prior to its annexation by Japan. The Imperial Japanese government annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879 as part of Japan. In the next decade Japan conducted scientific and geographical surveys of the area and beyond. At the time Japan refused to incorporate the Diaoyudao/Diaoyutai into Okinawa prefecture, wary of drawing the suspicion of the Qing Empire to its activities and motives.
The history of the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands/Diaoyutai began in earnest when Japan annexed Taiwan and its outlying islands under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 after defeating the Qing forces in the first Sino-Japanese War. The Diaoyudao/Diaoyutai were then incorporated into the Okinawa prefecture as part of the Ryukyu Islands. After Japan's surrender under the terms of the Potsdam declaration at the end of WWII, Japanese sovereignty was limited to the four major islands: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku and limited minor islands. The Ryukyu Islands were to be administered by the United States which had taken control of them earlier in the war.
When the United States handed the Ryukyu Islands back to Japanese administration in 1971, it also turned the Diaoyudao/Diaoyutai over to Japan. China's position on the islands is that they are part of the Taiwan province, while Taiwan views the islands as part of its sovereign territory.
The Kuril Islands dispute goes back to the end of WWII, when the Soviet Union invaded and annexed the islands Etorofu, Habomai, Kunashiri, and Shikotan. Today the dispute remains a point of contention between Japan and Russia.
Also worth mentioning is that Japan claims the Liancourt Rocks, also known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, which is controlled by South Korea. North Korea and South Korea both vigorously support Korean sovereignty over Dokdo.